Tremors
by Victoria Hughes
Summary: CHAPTER 20 UP. Danny's been catapulted into a parallel dimension. But he's left his ghost half behind ... will his human half survive the Ghost King? And will Phantom survive Danny's parents? Nothing is quite how he expected it ... DxS, DxV.
1. Splitting Images

"Well, well, well."

The Ghost King looked down on me with a wide smirk, showing teeth. I couldn't help the shiver that went up my spine from the look on his face, still struggling with the ropes holding my wrists behind my back. "A mere human causing so much trouble …"

"He called himself Daniel Fenton," Kobal informed her master as I shot a horrified glare at the traitor.

"His name is not worthy of my attention!" the Ghost King boomed. "Put him with the other rebels for now. We'll see what's to be done with him later."

My arms were grabbed roughly by the guards and I was dragged away …

Well, I suppose I should really start at the beginning, shouldn't I?

&

**Tremors**

&

Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be. Thank you, Butch, for letting me borrow your characters.

Notes: Let's just say this: Jack bunnied me badly with one throwaway line in 'Maternal Instincts'. I hope you all enjoy.

&

**Chapter 1: Splitting Images**

It was a pretty normal day, as normal goes for me, Danny Fenton – part-time ghost, full-time teenager. It was Saturday, which is always the best day of the week. I was supposed to be meeting up with Sam and Tuck at the arcade on 23rd street – but I'd overslept. Granted, there was a reason – no really, I swear! Technus (2.0) had tried to take over our mainframe overnight, which meant that _I_ woke up at 2 AM breathing mist out of my mouth with a bad case of the shivers.

When I went to go find out what the trouble was, Technus had already turned the whole lab against me. Ecto-guns blasted at me from everywhere, destroying everything except, fortunately, me. I don't have a real talent for overshadowing hardware, but that's what I did, and after Technus almost trapped me in my parents' own mainframe, I finally managed to eject him from the computers and throw him back into the Ghost Zone.

Oh, did I mention the Portal went nuts during our battle and I spent another hour capturing the three ghost animals that had made their escapes?

Anyway, I was running late. I pulled on a shirt, tousled my hair into some semblance of neatness, and shot downstairs for some breakfast. Mom was working on yet another Fenton Invention at the table. I hurriedly jerked down some cereal from the cabinet.

"Going somewhere, honey?" Mom asked.

"Meeting Sam and Tucker at the arcade," I answered. "Running late, gotta eat and run." I poured some milk, ignoring the screaming turkey at the back of the fridge, and started to wolf down breakfast.

"Well, your father wanted to talk to you," Mom continued. "The lab's a mess again, and you know your chores come first."

"Oh, come on!" I complained, swallowing down a mouthful of Ghosty-O's hard. "My friends are already gonna kill me!"

"Honey," Mom said in that 'mom voice' that no kid ever wants to hear. I winced. "At least explain to him that you'll do your chores when you come back. Because you will, right?"

"Of course," I exclaimed, not about to argue. I drained the milk from the bottom of the bowl, washed it down with some orange juice, and started for the basement stairs. "I'll talk to him. I'm sorry …"

What was really annoying was that I had just cleaned the lab yesterday, but thanks to Technus, it was totally trashed again. Unfortunately, with my parents, well. You'll see.

"Danny! Some ghost trashed the lab last night!" Dad shouted as soon as I came into the lab. "Look at this mess!"

I'd seen it last night, but I tried to look surprised. "Woah, what a mess," I said lamely.

"I'll bet it was that ghost kid! When I get my hands on him I'll—"

I laughed nervously, interrupting. "I know it's my job to clean the lab, Dad, but I promised Tucker and Sam I'd meet up with them. Can I please do it when I come back?" _Besides, I just cleaned it yesterday!_

My dad didn't look happy about it. "Son, you know what happens when you shirk your chores …"

"But the house didn't blow up!" I pointed out hastily. "Besides, it's not like I'm trying to put it off until next month! I'll clean it up this afternoon, I promise!"

Dad looked back down at whatever he was tinkering with. "Look at this, the motherboard's fried …"

"Pleeeeeeease?" I pleaded.

"Oh, all right," my dad finally agreed. "But you get right on this the instant you walk in the house!"

"Right," I agreed, relieved. "I'll be back by 3!" I started back up the stairs.

"Eureka!" Dad shouted behind me, and there was a crackling sound. "Maddie! Come look at this!"

Have you ever gotten that bad feeling? You know, when you realize something really awful is about to happen and it's already too late to stop it? That's what I felt just then.

"Dad!" I ran back into the lab. Dad was standing back from the main computer – the one that opened the Ghost Portal – with an amazed expression.

And suddenly I felt a chill.

A puff of mist came from my mouth and I groaned (purely internally). "No, no no no!"

"Hahaha! Ghost child, you thought you had rid me from this wonderful piece of hardware! But I, Technus 2.0, planted myself as a virus!" The motherboard Dad had been working on began to glow and floated upwards.

"Ghost kid! Where?" Dad cried, diving for an ecto-gun. "GHOST!"

And me?

Well, I ran like the scared kid I was supposed to be.

Of course, the plan was to go upstairs and go ghost, but I bumped into Mom on the way. "Danny!" She shoved a gun into my hands. You've gotta remember, I'm a Fenton; I'm supposed to be dealing with ghost problems, not running away from them. "Let's get that ghost!" She grabbed my sleeve and hauled me down after her.

"Mom, no!" I protested, but the next thing I knew we were back in the lab. Mom and Dad had opened fire, and Technus was laughing.

"Your guns are no match for … MORE guns!" Technus cried, turning every gun in the basement on my parents and me.

Well, you can imagine how I reacted. I panicked. Mom and Dad nodded to each other and started blasting away at their own equipment, but I fired at the motherboard Technus was inhabiting. "I don't think so!"

But I'm a much better match for Technus as a ghost than as a kid. Technus snapped free a whole bunch of the wires in the computer and wrapped them around me, pinning my arms to my sides and electrocuting me in the process. "Aaaah!"

I always thought that after getting shocked in the Fenton Portal, getting electrocuted would never hurt as badly as it had then. But I was wrong; it hurt _worse _now.

"I wonder what this does?" Technus mused. I panted for breath, trying to see what Technus was playing with _now._ But whatever it was, it hit me in the face before I could react.

I thought I'd been split in two. Both my parents shouted my name somewhere to the left, but I could barely hear them. There was blasting, and then …

Then …

Technus made an enraged sound, but it was distant. There was roaring in my ears, and I felt like I was really dizzy. Suddenly, I felt as if a hook had been put in my stomach and was yanking me forward, even though I hadn't moved.

Then I fell to the ground, coughing and blinking hard. I couldn't see. I couldn't see! Was I blind? Was I deaf, too? It was completely, eerily silent – that kind of silence that's so quiet it feels _loud_, somehow. I staggered to my feet, still feeling dizzy.

"Mom? Dad?" I could hear my own voice. Was that a good sign? But I couldn't hear my parents or Technus, and I still couldn't see a thing.

"… Ghost child?" came a meek voice.

"Gah!" It was Technus! I fired blindly in a fit of panic, and the ray of light seared my eyes, briefly lighting up the pitch blackness. I got an impression of scorched walls and destruction before the blackness closed in again. Technus must have destroyed the lab and blown out the power.

Well, at least I wasn't blind …

"What did you do, Technus?" I shouted angrily, pretending I could see perfectly fine. "Where are my parents?"

There was a flicker of green glow, and my eyes fixated on it. It grew, and soon it was Technus, looking completely confused. "I did nothing to your parents, ghost child! Something happened to me before I could destroy them," he said defiantly.

"Then where are they?" I demanded, aiming my ecto-gun at him.

"How am I supposed to know?" Technus answered, shrugging.

I bared my teeth, furious, determined to beat the answer out of him. Without my parents around, at least I could do that much. "Going ghost!"

Nothing happened.

It was like I'd reached for something that wasn't there. There wasn't even a halo around my waist. Trying not to panic, I tried again. "Going GHOST!" But again, nothing happened. _Why can't I go ghost?_

What I didn't know at the time was, when Technus fired whatever it was he'd fired at me that made me feel like I'd been split in two, I _had_ been split in two.

And wherever my parents had gone, my ghost half had gone there with them.

&

_Elsewhere_

Before I could get my bearings, Technus fired whatever it was he had at me. I felt like I was being split in two …

And the next thing I knew, I was looking at my human half, still hanging helplessly in the wires Technus had grabbed me with. I looked down at myself; I was in my ghost form, wearing the black hazmat suit and white gloves.

_Oh no! OH NO!_ _Am I dead? What just happened?_

"Danny!" "Ghost kid!"

I saw my parents suddenly split their firepower. Dad fired at me, of course; I dodged wildly. But Mom fired at Technus.

Something seemed to whine, then scream in my ears. My parents both covered their ears with a cry of pain, and I couldn't help doing the same thing. I tried to see what was happening, looking back at Technus and my human half.

My human half lifted his head, and I felt a surge of hope. Okay, I wasn't dead! I'd just been split apart. But how had that happened? I swooped to remerge with my body …

But I was too slow. Technus cried out, and I saw him slowly getting dragged out the mainframe. What happened next seemed to be in slow-motion; I flew as fast as I could, but it wasn't fast enough. Technus and my human half both looked like they were being pulled through a thin, invisible tube …

And then they were gone.

The screaming sound stopped. I floated in the empty space my human half had inhabited, trying to figure out what just happened.

I heard my parents groaning behind me. I whirled to face them. "Jack … what just happened …?" Mom asked. "Where's Danny?" she started to visibly panic.

"I don't know," my Dad rumbled, clutching his head. "I don't … ghost kid!" He suddenly spotted me and brought the Fenton Bazooka to bear. "What did you do with our son?"

"I didn't do anything!" I answered, my voice spiraling into a high-pitched squeak, throwing up my aims in surrender. "I swear I didn't—"

"You were overshadowing him!" My mom accused, recovering and pointing her own ecto-gun at me. "Don't lie to me, ghost boy! A mother's intuition is never wrong!"

Only it was horribly wrong, at least this time. Oh, if only they knew … at least it hadn't occurred to them that we were one and the same.

"I know you're not going to believe me," I said cautiously, backing towards the wall, "but I didn't do anything to Danny. I swear on – on my own grave!" Which was hopefully still far, far in the future. "It was Technus … I think …"

But Mom and Dad both charged their guns with a loud whine. I flattened myself to the wall, trying to convince them. Things would be so much easier if I could work with them to find my human half! "Have I ever done anything to hurt _anyone_ in your family?" I cried. "What about when the Wisconsin Ghost attacked? Didn't I help?"

My dad blinked, but his eyes narrowed immediately afterwards. "Nobody uses my son as a human meat puppet," he warned.

There was no way to explain that one. "Mo—Maddie, Jack, please--! How could I have done anything to Danny? I was just as helpless as you! I just want to find him, okay? I-I don't know where he went and I want to find him!"

"Eat Fenton Bazooka, ghost!"

I cringed, about to fly out of the basement, when my mom put a hand on Dad's gun. "Honey, please," she said softly.

I relaxed momentarily, hoping against hope that Mom was going to listen to reason – or what passed for it, anyway.

"You don't want to send him back to the Ghost Zone! We need to capture him for questioning!"

And with that, my mom fired at me.

"Yikes!" I was a moment too slow; the ecto-gun's blast seared my side. But I managed to escape, flying at top speed out of my parents' home and fleeing across Amity Park.

What was I going to do now?

&

_Back with my human half …_

Technus looked as shocked as I was to find that I was still human. "Well, well, ghost child – or should I say, human child!" he exclaimed.

"Hey! I still have the gun," I snapped, keeping it trained on him. Inwardly I was panicking again. This made no _sense._ But I was starting to have an idea … a faint one, from a time almost five years ago.

"Come with me, Technus," I instructed.

"Why should I do anything you say?" Technus demanded of me.

"Because I'm beginning to think that you're not lying, and it's not my parents that have been sent somewhere," I said warily. "And if I'm right, we're stranded together."

"Stranded? What do you mean?" Technus's eyebrows rose over his square glasses.

"Just come on. Light the way or something," I ordered, ushering him past me. If I was right, we were still in the lab, and the stairs would be just to my right.

Technus obeyed, shooting me a dirty look, but his green glow brightened slightly. Sure enough, he lit up the base of the stairs. "Well? Go up!"

"I'm going, I'm going," Technus sighed, leading the way. I followed him, keeping my gun trained on his back.

In truth, I was really lucky Technus was listening, but I guess he was as confused as I felt. I wanted him to at least stay with me until I got someplace where I could see again, but I was beginning to really regret not having a Fenton Thermos with me.

We marched up the stairs – well, I marched, and Technus floated – and when we got to the first floor of FentonWorks, I was almost certain that my hunch was right.

The house looked abandoned. The windows were all broken in, furniture was overturned and destroyed, and the kitchen was silent. Moonlight streamed in the window, which made no sense seeing as it had been eleven in the morning only a few minutes ago.

"This is your home? You don't keep up well, do you?" Technus remarked in that annoying nasal tone.

"Idiot, this isn't _my _home!" I threw up the hand not holding the ecto-gun. "This is my home in another dimension."

"Ah, I s—WHAT?"

I sighed. _You heard right, Technus._ "We're stranded in a parallel dimension," I explained. "And unless we're really, really lucky, we're not getting home."

_Tbc_

_Firstly, I want to apologize for how long it's been since I've written a chapter for 'Coming Home'. I've been pretty blocked with it, and I've been so busy with school and such that I haven't had time to write much in any case. But this plot bunny just came out of nowhere and hit me in the head, so we'll see what happens._

_Thank you for reading! Reviews are adored and replied to!_


	2. Shades of Gray

**Chapter 2: Shades of Gray**

Every time my mom leaves the house in Dad's hands, she always warns him to _please_ be careful. That's because, about five years ago, Dad was tinkering in the basement …

_It was a long-standing theory between our parents that there was a Ghost Zone. Jazz thought it was ridiculous, but then again, Jazz didn't believe in ghosts. I did – not entirely, I guess, but even though Mom and Dad are eccentric and obsessive, they're not stupid. Not really, anyway._

_On this theory, my parents had begun building what would later be called the Fenton Bazooka. The idea was that it would open up a temporary portal to the Ghost Zone, in case we ever encountered a ghost that was so dangerous it couldn't be captured for study._

_Of course, it might have helped if my parents had actually seen _any_ ghosts …_

_There was an explosion._

_Jazz and I, both doing our homework in the kitchen, didn't think anything of it at first. Explosions really aren't that uncommon in our house. But then there was this weird sensation – kind of like being yanked forward by your shirt, but somehow you didn't really move. Jazz gasped. I echoed her._

_And then the sensation stopped._

"_Suffering Spooks!" our Dad shouted downstairs, and then he said it again. "Suffering Spooks!"_

_Jazz and I looked at each other. Then Jazz sighed aloud, standing up. She may have only been in seventh grade, but she was already acting like she knew everything. "I'll go see what's going on," she said in a long-suffering tone._

"_I want to come too!" Even then, I'll admit, I'd do anything to get away from math. I shot past her and ran down the stairs. "Dad, what happened?"_

_But there were TWO Dads standing at the bottom of the stairs!_

"_Wow, Dad, you duplicated yourself?" I exclaimed. Then I frowned. "Why would you duplicate yourself?"_

"_I'm not his duplicate," both Dads said at the same time, pointing at each other. Then they scowled at each other. "You're _my_ duplicate!"_

_That was when Jazz got to the bottom of the stairs. Her eyes got really wide, and then she ran back up the stairs. "I'm calling Mom!"_

"_Jazzypants!" "Jazzy-honey!"_

_Dad and Dad glared at each other again, but before anyone could say anything, Jazz screamed._

_Well, now _I_ was scared. Both Dads shouted for Jazz again and thundered past me. I followed them, kind of frightened. What could make Jazz scream? She was totally one of the bravest people I knew, except maybe Sam._

_What had made Jazz scream was seeing herself. No, not in the mirror – another her, only with shorter hair. Both Jazzes were staring at each other now._

"_You made two of Jazz too?" I asked. "What about me?"_

_Okay, I'm wasn't the brightest kid, but by now you probably know what had happened._

"_Dad!" exclaimed one Jazz – the one with short hair. "Did you send us into a parallel dimension _again?_"_

&

To make a long story short, my dad's invention only half-worked. It did send stuff into another 'zone', but not the Ghost Zone; he'd sent the whole house to another dimension. It was a lot like our own, I guess. I got to meet the other me, and he was friends with Tucker too, but not Sam. Lucky for us, the other Dad had figured out how to get home from other parallel dimensions, since he'd apparently done the same thing a couple months earlier. We weren't there long.

I really wonder if the other me ever stepped into the Ghost Portal, sometimes, but I guess he probably didn't, since Sam wasn't there to get him to do it. Their portal is probably still standing there, a big hole in the wall with nothing to show but a severe lack of ghosts. Sometimes I think the other me is pretty lucky.

Other times I think I'm the lucky one.

So there I was, trapped in another dimension with Technus 2.0, and totally stripped of my ghost powers. I felt angry and sort of … naked, I guess. I haven't been without my ghost powers for more than a few hours anytime in the last year, and whenever I didn't have them, something disastrous always happened.

This time wasn't any exception. Technus was apparently still trying to make sense of things when the front door of the house slammed open, admitting none other than the Red Hunter, Valerie Gray.

She looked pretty different. Valerie isn't fat, but in this dimension she looked a lot thinner. Her suit was visibly patched, and she had this huge gash on her thigh.

I was stunned, and so was Technus, I guess, because he was uncharacteristically quiet. She slammed her shoulder into the door so it was flung shut, and leaned against it, panting heavily. She had her rifle ecto-gun in her hands.

I suddenly realized I'd lifted a hand to my mouth to stifle myself. Slowly I lowered it, and at the same time Valerie's visor turned towards us.

I don't really know what kind of reaction I was expecting, but she was moving before I could speak. Usually the Valerie I know is loud, at least when she's fighting Danny Phantom – screams a lot and shouts insults and stuff. But Valerie was completely silent as she suddenly flung herself across the room at Technus, firing something from her wrist.

Technus had time to make a squeak of surprise before his mouth was plastered shut by ecto-goo.

"Yikes!" I gasped. Technus would probably flee now, I realized suddenly, and I wasn't quite ready for that. I wasn't sure if I needed him to go back. I fired my ecto-gun at the same time as Valerie, and Technus slammed back into the wall, giving me a betrayed look just before Valerie brought out the last of her arsenal – a ghost-catching net. She threw it at Technus with a snarl, and he was neatly trapped, sliding down the wall.

She turned to look at me. I wished I could see her expression; I opened my mouth to speak, to explain, to say _something_, but she flew at me and twisted me around, slamming me up against the wall. She pinned me by the shoulder, digging her ecto-rifle into my back. My own ecto-gun went flying with a clatter.

"Danny Fenton, huh?" she asked, her voice muffled but somewhere between mocking and … wistful.

I suddenly realized that the voice was all wrong. I swallowed hard, hearing the whine of the gun powering up, and even though I may have been completely human, getting hit by an ectoplasmic blast point-blank would probably still kill me. I looked at her from the corner of my eye, my cheek pressed into the crumbling drywall.

"Don't think for a second you can fool me, you piece of crap," the Red Hunter hissed.

I finally placed the voice, and all I could emit was a strangled, shocked sound.

"Sam?" I asked, voice cracking.

The Red Hunter stiffened, then stilled.

"No one's called me that for a year," she whispered, and she pulled back her mask.

Samantha Manson was the Red Hunter.

She looked really different. Her hair was all chopped off – the only long strands were a few in the front, like she'd once shaved off all her hair except her bangs – and she looked so tired. "This isn't possible," she whispered. "You don't—" she cut herself off, and the ecto-rifle left its place in my spine. Instead, I felt her shoulder against my shoulderblade. "Give me your hand."

"What?" I asked hoarsely, automatically taking her cue and keeping my voice down. I thought I could hear muffled sounds outside, but it was hard to tell.

"Just give it here," Sam snapped, twisting one hand back and up.

I bit my lip to keep from letting out a shout of pain, only to whimper a little when something sharp sliced my finger open. Sure, I've gotten worse as a ghost and probably as a human, but my shoulder was practically dislocated! "What're you doing?"

Sam's shoulder was still shoved into my back. "It's red," she muttered, then slowly took her weight off my spine. I relaxed marginally, but she grabbed my shoulder again and spun me back around to face her. "All right, I believe you're human. But you look just like—"

"Danny Fenton?" I finished dryly, examining my split finger. It looked like Sam had taken a knife to it. "That's because I _am_ Danny Fenton. Just not the one you know. I'm kind of from a—"

"HAHA!"

"Oh, no," I groaned, smacking my face into my palm. "Technus, not now!"

"And tell me again why I should listen to you, gho—human child?" Technus demanded, floating up from the remains of Sam's ghost net. "You cannot stop me, the master of all things electronic and mechanical, with a mere net!"

I dove for my ecto-gun. But Sam yanked her visor back down over her face and threw something at Technus. "Come on!" Just as I wrapped my hands around my weapon, Sam's hand closed on my collar and yanked me after her. "They'll be back on my tail now! Quick, we made a back exit this way." She dragged me into the kitchen and then through a crack in the wall that actually dropped us into the alley right next to FentonWorks.

"Who's 'they'?" I asked, voice strangled, at the same time as a plume of smoke engulfed a surprised-looking Technus.

"The slavers," Sam answered, shoving me in front of her. I stumbled, then started running with her, still trying to digest what I'd just heard.

"Slavers?"

"Shhh!" Sam hissed, grabbing my sleeve and slamming me into the brick wall. She held her hand over my chest, keeping me in place, and peered around the corner of the building.

I shivered, and mist issued from my mouth.

Now that was odd. Abruptly I wondered if I would be able to 'go ghost' again after all, and my powers had just been temporarily disabled by shifting dimensions or something. I was lucky Sam hadn't seen it, not that I knew it. But there wasn't much time to wonder about it; a huge, hulking ghost I'd never seen before thundered past down the road, accompanied by a small host of ghost skeletons.

Yeah, I mean the ghost skeletons that attacked Amity when Pariah Dark tried to take over. What other ones would I mean?

I was beginning to get the feeling that something really, really bad had happened in this dimension. Maybe worse than I had first thought when I saw our abandoned home.

"Were the humans in the Entry Home again?" said one heavily armored ghost, zipping around the head of the huge ghost.

Actually, the more I looked, the less sure I was that the huge thing was actually a ghost …

"Looks like Technus, actually. I thought he combined with Skulker," remarked another, identical ghost idly.

"Maybe they separated?" mused the first ghost.

This sounded grossly familiar. SkulTech 9.9 was from far in the future though … a future that was never going to happen. Right?

Sam looked back at me. "On the count of three, go," she whispered. "Across the street. I have a rendezvous point." I nodded obediently. I didn't exactly have a choice, after all. I also thought the ghosts were still a little close to try this, but …

"One … two … three … run!" Sam whispered hoarsely, and we both sprinted across the street.

"Humans!"

"I knew it was too early!" I panted aloud. I didn't dare look back, but Sam paid no attention.

"Whatever, it's not too late," she said coldly. We ran into the alley there, and Sam knelt in the middle of it, grabbing … _the sewer grill?_

"Let me help," I gasped, even though I'm still a total wimp physically. I always thought my ghost powers would make me strong in regular life, too, like Spider-Man, but it turns out no. I mean, the truth is – and don't tell anybody this, because Tuck especially is totally convinced it's ghost strength – there is no such thing as gravity for me as a ghost, really, and anything I touch is completely weightless, just like me. That's why I can do things like swing giant dragons around my head in ghost mode.

I'm kind of getting away from the point. So anyway, I was sort of helping Sam lift the manhole cover, when suddenly it was shoved aside from below.

"Man, you're late," said a person I couldn't see in the darkness, but could completely identify by voice: Valerie Gray. "Come on!"

"You go first," I urged automatically. The ghost skeletons would come around the corner any second now.

"Now's not the time for chivalry, buddy," Sam snapped, and pushed me right into the manhole. And just to make things more mortifying, as I hurtled down the sewer hole with a very unmanly yell, Valerie caught me at the bottom.

Valerie looked pretty different too. Her pants were soaked with sewage water, but she wore … well, I thought it was a pretty hot tanktop, with a long-sleeved something-or-other underneath. She had three belts on, overloaded with ecto-weapons. "Can you stand?" she asked, totally businesslike. She didn't seem to recognize me at all.

"Yeah," I said slowly, and I was immediately dropped onto my feet, splashing me up to my knees with dirty brown water. She shoved a flashlight into my hand, quirking an eyebrow at my weapon.

"Then turn that thing on and cover me!" she demanded, spreading her legs in a wide stance and holding her arms out under the halo of light created by the open manhole cover.

Sam had started working her way down the ladder of the manhole. I fumbled the flashlight on and pointed it at her. All by herself, Sam pushed the manhole cover back into place, and suddenly the only light was from the flashlight I held.

"They didn't see us," Sam reported to Valerie after a moment of silence. She leapt down the rest of the ladder lightly, landing in Valerie's arms with the air of long practice, and pulled back the visor of her suit.

"They _did_ see us, though," I protested, keeping my flashlight trained on Sam and Val both. "They were chasing us."

Sam gave an exasperated sigh. "I mean, they didn't see us go down into the sewers," Sam explained. Her expression said _duh._ "Now …" she slid out of Valerie's arms easily and stalked towards me, wincing slightly with each step. I suddenly remembered the gash on her thigh. _Oh, man … she shouldn't be walking around, much less in sewage water …_ Up until that point, I'd been too nervous and shocked to notice the smell, but it was pretty horrible. I grimaced. "Give me that." Sam snatched the flashlight from my hand, and I let her, too startled to fight back. "You owe me a lot of explanations, but since I don't feel like interrogating you while knee-deep in sewage, we're going back to our camp first." She pointed down the drainage system. "Start walking, buddy."

"Okay, okay …" I submitted. "Want my ecto-gun, too?"

"… sure, for now," Sam agreed, holding out her hand for it. I sighed and handed that over, too, before starting to trudge through the water, right past Valerie. She just watched me pass, her face totally and perfectly blank, before following me towards wherever we were going.

All I could think, especially at the time, was that since announcing I was in fact Danny Fenton, this Sam had never, not once, called me 'Danny'.

_Tbc_

_HA HA HA! An evil twist!_

_Thank you especially to my three reviewers, Unrealistic, Zizzo, and Amitra for being so awesome. Any and all reviews are appreciated!_

_The challenge is to name every chapter after an episode. We'll see if I manage._


	3. Control Freaks

**Chapter 3: Control Freaks**

_While I marched through the sewers, my ghost half …_

I floated over Amity park slowly, hoping against hope that there wouldn't be a ghost attack just now. My first thought was to go to the arcade and meet Sam and Tucker, but then I decided I didn't want to alarm them – not just yet. The burn on my side was already healing, at least. They would be wondering where I was, though, so I had to see them sooner or later …

I settled on a tree branch. Some kids were playing on the playground over to the right of me, but I was completely hidden by the leaves.

What the heck had happened to my human half? It's hard to explain, but I had this feeling that he hadn't just winked out of existence or anything. He was somewhere; I just didn't know _where_. "Think, Phantom, think!" I urged myself quietly, wracking my brain. Fenton had disappeared along with Technus, and it had been after Mom shot at the ghost. She hadn't had the Fenton Bazooka, so they weren't in the Ghost Zo—

"Oh, duh!" Suddenly a thought hit me. The Fenton Bazooka created mini ghost portals that forced ghosts into it – like being sucked into a little tube. I'd seen it in action very clearly when Walker had turned the town against me. This whatever-it-was had just done something very similar to my human half and Technus. Maybe, somehow, my human half had been sucked away into some other dimension. Maybe the Ghost Zone, I admitted ruefully. But maybe somewhere else. And I thought maybe I had an idea what exactly had happened, that it had happened before … but I couldn't remember.

Something was really weird about this split, I realized.

I've been split away from my human half before; at the time, I'd flown through the Ghost Catcher on purpose and ended up just extremely _weird._ The memory was twofold and kind of made me sick when I thought about it, like when you've ridden a roller coaster 27 times too many in a row, but it was worse because it had been this utter _polarity_. I wanted to either be a huge hero or a total slacker, and I'm not really like that. I like being a hero, but I want to get decent grades at least, and I can't believe how rude I was.

This split was different again. This time, I was 'Phantom' in my head, but I still felt like Fenton, sort of. What was really weird was that I couldn't remember anything before the accident.

Okay, it wasn't like I'd totally forgotten, either. But it was more like distant impressions, like I was recalling things other people had told me about. It felt like …

Like I had overshadowed Danny Fenton and remembered some of the stuff I'd seen in his brain.

Oh, man, what if I couldn't remerge with my human half? The thought made me panic. I jerked to my feet on the tree branch, disturbing some birds, who flew off chirping.

That was when the ecto-net hit me in the back.

"Aaahh!" I was trapped instantly, and my balance was completely upset. I toppled forward and fell out of the tree, onto the not-nearly-as-soft-as-it-looked grass and one really unforgiving tree root. "Ow!"

There was shouting and cries of horror and excitement from the direction of the playground. My arms were inadvertently wrapped around me and my knees were pressed to my chest by the net; I tried to roll over, but to no avail.

A foot planted itself in my back and rolled me over instead, and I found myself looking at Skulker.

"That was entirely too easy, whelp," smirked the Greatest Hunter in the Ghost Zone, training no less than ten rocket launchers from his shoulders at me.

"Think again!" I snapped, releasing a thin wave of ectoplasm from every part of my body at once. The net was as bad as any Skulker had ever thrown at me, and it blew apart; I rocketed up at Skulker's face at top speed and sent him flying with a punch.

I glanced over my shoulder at the playground; parents were gathering their children and herding them away to their minivans. _Good, run!_ I thought. I had some serious frustrations to take out on Skulker.

I flew after him, fists glowing with ready ectoplasm. Skulker had recovered, of course, and he sent five rockets my way. I turned intangible. They blew holes into the trees and dirt, but missed me entirely. "Come on, Skulker, at least make something that can HIT me!" I shouted, firing back.

"Oh, I'm just getting started!" Skulker laughed, dodging. "Once again you make for a wonderful hunt!"

"Not in the mood!" I snarled back.

We exchanged blows furiously, neither giving ground. Skulker's always been a tough opponent, I'll admit. Also, I was oddly tiring, faster than I usually did. Our fight drifted across the park, attracting attention and driving others away. What I forgot to take into account, though, should be pretty obvious to you.

"There they are, Maddie!"

"I've got him!"

My parents.

I pulled up short, startled, and Skulker punched me across the jaw. I went flying across the sky. "Do not interfere in the hunt!" the hunter screamed.

I righted myself in time to see Skulker training all his guns on my parents. "Skulker, no!" I dove towards him at top speed.

Fortunately for me, I was too late again. Mom was the one with the Fenton Bazooka this time, and she fired; Skulker had time to emit a pathetic-sounding screech as the mini-portal the Bazooka created sucked him in. I had the good sense to stay far enough away from it.

Unfortunately, I wasn't far away enough. My dad lifted a much smaller weapon, one I was very, very familiar with. It happened to be my favorite Fenton Invention, actually.

"Eat Fenton Thermos, ghost!" Dad shouted, and activated the vacuum.

"Gaah!" I tried to dodge, but the vacuum caught my foot, and from there, it was all over. The Fenton Thermos vacuum is utterly impossible for a ghost to resist, and I was shouting as I fought it. But I felt my form dissolving, compacting, and then, I was crammed into a space so small that it's indescribable.

I heard my dad cap it, and then it was silent.

How can I explain what it's like being inside the Fenton Thermos? I've been inside other Fenton Inventions before – namely, the Weasel – but the Thermos is a thousand times worse. Inside the Weasel, I was compacted, squished with my knees crammed against my chest and my arms contorted oddly around me, and somehow a little _smaller_ – or better to say, partially converted to ambient ectoplasm, like the fog I can make of my body when I don't want to be hit. Inside the Thermos, I don't even have enough room to make _any_ part of me 'solid'; I'm in permanent fog mode.

I hate it. But it did give me time to think.

First, I wondered what my parents would do with me when they got to wherever they were taking me. I felt terrified, but at the same time wearily resigned. Maybe Jazz would be home, I hoped. She could talk some sense into my parents before they did anything totally crazy. With her help, maybe I could get out the idea that my human half had been sent to a parallel dimension! I brightened at the thought.

My mood darkened again, though, as I thought of all the really gross things my parents could do to me if Jazz wasn't home. _Would_ do to me, probably. They would want to know what had happened to Fenton, and I didn't have any explanations that would be good enough. There was a slim chance I could get through to Mom, maybe, but she was more enthusiastic about dissecting ghosts than even my Dad. _Ew, ew ew ew! _I didn't want to think about that! Would they really dissect me? Maybe, if they decided I really didn't know anything about their son! _But I am their son!_ They just don't know it. And could I really say they were _my_ parents? I wasn't the human me; I wasn't born to them. You could only say they were _my_ parents in the sense that they made the portal that created me …

My thoughts were getting really convoluted, I realized. I was Danny Fenton, and Danny Fenton was me. I was their kid, enough said. I couldn't think of my human half as a separate person.

I turned to other things, searching for something else to think about. Like Skulker's attack. He wouldn't be gone for long, I mused; I hadn't beaten him up _that_ much. And what was that, anyway, completely sneaking up on me? My ghost sense hadn't even gone off!

_My ghost sense hadn't gone off._

If I'd had a body, I would have been perfectly still. The thought was perplexing and oddly frightening. My ghost sense had always been a reliable indicator that ghosts were nearby, so why hadn't it sensed Skulker? Had I lost my ghost sense somehow in the split?

Or worse: was I losing my powers?

I remembered how tired I'd begun to feel, much sooner than usual. Why had that happened? Could a ghost get tired? Well, I knew they could get fatigued. _Calm down, Danny! There's totally a reasonable explanation for this_, I told myself. Maybe I was tired because the split had taken away my energy. And maybe the split hadn't been completely precise between my human half and my ghost half. I began to think that made the most sense, and I wondered if any other ghost powers had gone with my human half.

But as I was contemplating this, there was a _whoosh_ sound, and I was ejected from the Thermos forcibly. Instantly I had back my head, my arms, my legs – and I faceplanted into the ground. "Ow," I groaned piteously.

I heard a door slamming shut behind me, and I pushed myself up on my elbows, turning towards the sound.

I was unmistakably in a cage, bars crisscrossing around me like a dog's carrier, and glowing a sickly, forbidding green. I reached out to touch the bars, but withdrew before actually touching them. It didn't take a genius to guess they were a ghost shield. There wasn't enough room to stand up, so I crouched instead, looking around the room.

No surprise; I was in the basement. The Ghost Portal was shut, thank goodness. My parents both stood just outside the cage, their arms crossed the same way as when they were winding up for a lecture about my grades. I felt my insides curl, and if I'd had a smart-alecky comment to throw at them, I don't remember it now. My voice died in my throat. There was something really gut-curdling about having your own parents lock you in a cage, even if they didn't know it was you.

"All right, ghost," Mom said in her Mom Voice. "You know what we want to hear."

"Tell us what you did with our son!" my dad boomed.

_This is so not going to end well,_ I thought, dropping my head into my hands.

&

_And back in the sewers …_

I felt disgusting. Not only was I sweaty from all the running and then trudging through knee-deep water, but I was muddy and my pants were totally soaked. Valerie and Sam didn't seem bothered in the least by this, but I thought this was all way beyond gross. And totally unnecessary, too.

Still, I didn't break the silence. The wavering light of Sam's flashlight showed the way, and I was just about brimming with questions – ones I wasn't sure Sam and Val could answer for me. Like why was Sam the Red Hunter instead of Valerie? Where was Tucker, and where was I? And what the heck were we doing walking through the sewers of Amity Park?

I was a little startled when Valerie spoke. "You look kind of familiar," she said, glancing at me. "What's your name?"

"Danny. Danny Fenton," I clarified. How did Sam 'know' me, but Val didn't?

"Oh." Valerie digested this, and seemed to come up blank for a long moment. Then her eyebrows shot up. "Wait. You're the one that—"

"Later, Keira," Sam said.

I whirled to look at Sam, but all I could see was her flashlight, of course. Semi-blinded, I turned around again. Who was Keira? But Valerie had fallen silent again.

"Keira?" I asked.

"Yeah?" said Val.

"That's your name?" I asked.

"Yeah. What about it?" Valerie's tone was challenging.

"N-nothing. I just thought it was Valerie, is all," I stammered.

Valerie's eyes shot wide, and she looked between myself and Sam. "What is with this kid?" she asked, jerking a thumb at me.

"You'll get your answers, as soon as I get mine," Sam said flatly. I couldn't detect a trace of fatigue in her voice, even though I was exhausted.

"You're sure he's not a ghost?" Val – I mean, Keira – said expectantly.

"Positive. He bleeds red. No ghost can imitate that," Sam answered.

I considered trying to explain myself right then and there, but I was too out-of-breath to bother.

It wasn't much longer before we arrived at the 'camp', as Sam had called it. We came on a grill with an ominous-looking green shimmer. Considering I still had my ghost sense, I wasn't sure if I was safe to touch it, but I heard an electronic chirp behind me and the glow faded. Val grabbed the grill and hauled back on it, swinging it open. It was a cleverly disguised door, I realized. "Quickly, get in," Sam instructed, pushing my shoulder to urge me on. I clambered up into the grill, grateful for the relative dryness of the higher piping. Valerie followed me, much more graceful, and Sam pretty much just leapt up after us. She swung the grill shut behind us with a clang, and the chirp sounded again, reactivating the shield-thing.

"Why'd you deactivate it to let us in?" I asked.

"It's a ghost-human shield," Sam explained. "Repels humans and ghosts alike. Way more secure than a lock, don't you think?"

I thought of a certain cheese-head back in Wisconsin.

"Way better," I agreed aloud. "What now?"

"Keep walking," 'Keira' said. "It's not far, now." So walk we did, and Val was right; we made a right turn, and suddenly I was faced with Dash Baxter.

"Yikes!" I said, instinctively moving back.

But Dash just glared at me and crossed his arms over his chest. "That's not the password!"

"Solitare," Valerie sighed behind me.

Dash's mouth curled upwards, and I took a moment to really _look_ at Dash. He was wearing baggy pants and a tank top, but one that had seen better days. And he was definitely thinner. So was Val, actually, now that I thought about it …

Then again, it did look like Sam and company were living in the sewers. I shouldn't have been too surprised.

"How right you are. Come on in," he gestured, saving me a little dangerous smirk as I passed. I guess some things are the same in every dimension.

There were people scattered around the piping past Dash, most of them sleeping. This place didn't reek as badly as the rest of the sewers, but it still smelled. I wondered if I was just smelling my own pants and, er … manly aroma.

"I'll make sure everything's secure," Valerie was saying to Sam.

"Good. I'm talking to him," Sam answered, jerking her thumb at me. Her visor turned towards me, and I raised my eyebrows. "Come with me." She brushed past me and started down another pipe.

I followed. It was pretty secluded back here, I realized; the people had thinned out, and there was a pallet. Sam sat on it, gesturing for me to sit next to her. I obeyed.

There was a beat of silence before Sam pressed a button on her wrist. The Red Hunter suit began to retract, and a minute later, I was sitting next to Sam almost exactly as I knew her: purple eyes, black hair, and black clothes. I wondered why her suit wasn't black, too, come to think of it. But there was a hardness around her eyes, like she was constantly, furiously angry.

"You say you're Danny Fenton," she started. "But that's not possible."

"Well, it's like I was telling you in my house," I tried to explain. "I'm not the Danny you know. Or knew, or whatever. I'm from another dimension. I ended up here with Technus on accident." I took a deep breath, not sure what else to say. Seeing what a pathetic existence this was, I couldn't exactly ask for help getting back to my own dimension. I'd have to figure out another way home … or hope my parents found me, or something.

Sam was silent for a long moment. "Another dimension?" she asked at length.

"Yeah, uh, that's a bit of a long story …" I said slowly. "Um, why isn't it possible for me to be Danny Fenton, anyway?" I was dreading the answer.

As it turned out, I was right to do so. Sam looked me right in the eye, unflinching, and her voice was completely flat.

"That's because, 'Danny', you died. In the accident when you activated the Portal …"

_Tbc_

_Oh, gee, what a HUGE SURPRISE. /sarcasm I promise there are bigger surprises on the way. I think you'll like them._

_Anyway. Thank you again to all my reviewers, who totally rock: YumiTakato, Amitra, Unrealistic, Jazmin3 Firewing, Zizzo, Arabic Blessing, and hydraling110. I hope to keep you on your toes through most of this story, if not the whole thing. I'm glad you're enjoying this!_

_Reveiws are appreciated and hugged._


	4. Reality Trip

**Chapter 4: Reality Trip**

"_That's because, 'Danny', you died. In the accident when you activated the Portal …"_

"Your parents had built some Ghost Portal thing that was supposed to let people see the Ghost Zone. But it didn't work, and you … you tried to fix it." Sam swallowed hard. "And then." She cut herself off abruptly.

Oh.

I was stunned for a few moments, but the idea quickly sank in. Remembering the searing pain of electrocution … yeah. I believed that I could have died, if things had been even slightly different.

It took longer, however, for the implications for everyone else to sink in. Mom and Dad … what had happened to them when I died in their own Fenton Invention? What about Jazz? And the most obvious question smacked me in the face: what about Sam?

Sam had been the one who convinced me to enter the portal in my dimension. Was it the same here? She must have been wracked with guilt! "Sam, I'm so sorry," I said, choking a little.

Sam was silent for a long moment, her face completely impassive. When she finally spoke, it was with quiet conviction. "I killed him. You. You have nothing to be sorry about." She drew in a deep breath and let it out. "I'll ask Ferina about the parallel dimension thing."

"Ferina?" I asked, nonplussed.

Sam hesitated a moment. "Your sister," she said carefully.

"Jazz? Jazz is here?" I asked, almost jumping to my feet. "Where?"

"Keep your voice down!" Sam snapped. "You really must be from another dimension. Stop calling people by their old names."

"What? Why?" I asked, blinking. "Old names?" I was utterly lost.

"Calm down and listen," Sam ordered. She reached behind herself, and I thought for a moment it would be something she wanted to show me, but what emerged was a well-battered first aid kit. She hiked up her skirt without shame; the gash on her thigh that'd I'd all but forgotten about was thick with congealed blood. "For the sake of simplicity, I'll pretend you're telling the truth."

"I am telling the truth," I snapped, but I looked at the wound with a wince. "Let me help with that."

"What do you know about first aid?" Sam smirked. Her voice was mirthless.

"A lot more than you think. Please," I said. "At least let me do something."

Sam gave me a skeptical look, but leaned back slightly, letting me at it.

As a ghost I heal pretty fast, but I have to clean up myself before I change back anyway, just in case I'm still bleeding. Jazz showed me how to make tourniquets and clean gashes once she knew what I was up to, so I can take care of my own messes. Working on Sam's thigh was different, but not _that_ different; I started with a wet wipe, swiping away most of the congealed blood.

"Ow. Be careful," Sam said.

_After you fought Technus and trudged around in sewers with this, you think a little alcohol is painful?_ I thought. "Okay," I said aloud.

Sam nodded slightly when I glanced up at her, and she seemed a little less stiff for a moment. "I'll give you the cliff notes version," she said abruptly.

"Pretend I've forgotten everything about the past year," I suggested.

"Fine." Sam paused, apparently deciding where to begin. "All right. So, the portal activated, and you died in it." I could tell it was painful for her to say because her voice was clipped and angry. "But the portal _was_ working. Your parents decided to leave it running in your honor or some such crap. I wish they hadn't.

"Not long after that, ghosts started appearing in Amity Park. Your parents went nuts hunting them down, but as fast as they could put them in the Ghost Portal, more came through … we didn't even know that's where they were coming from, for a long time. Your parents insisted it could only let people view the Ghost Zone, not the other way around.

"And then your dad died. Got killed by some ghost calling himself the Ghost Zone's Greatest Hunter."

I stiffened. "Skulker," I said quietly. Of course, Vlad had sent him to kill Dad. My fist clenched around one bloody wipe.

Sam's wound was starting to weep blood slowly again, but that was probably good. I retrieved the peroxide from the kit and tried to detach myself from the story Sam was telling.

"Fe-- … your sister was hysterical, and so was your mom. And then, your mom just disappeared. Poof, gone. We don't know what happened."

"Vlad," I muttered this time, taking a deep breath through clenched teeth.

Sam stiffened at the word, and suddenly, her knee slammed into my chest. The breath was instantly knocked from me. I fell back on my hands, wheezing.

"What was that for?" I gasped as soon as I could.

"There's a reason we don't say names here!" Sam snapped. "You don't know who's listening! Now, _please_ just shut up."

I stared at her. Sam's temper had always been dangerous, but usually she was more underhanded in her revenge. I was quiet for a long moment, angry, and about to shoot back that there was no way that names were _that_ dangerous and what was the big deal about Vlad, anyway?

But I held my tongue as common sense began to kick in. I knew nothing about this world, which was obviously totally different from mine. I was missing a lot of pieces still. "Okay. Okay, sorry." I licked my lips. "Should I …?" I pointed at her leg.

"Yeah. I'm sorry, too," Sam said after a moment. "It's just … don't be so thickheaded, okay?"

I nodded, leaning back over the wound. I poured a little peroxide on some gauze and swiped it over the cut carefully.

Sam sucked in a sharp breath and let it out, probably from the peroxide. Then she continued: "About then we figured out where the ghosts were coming from. Your sister started working on how to close and deactivate the portal along with Tray." She paused. "Uh … you know …"

"My other best friend?" I asked dryly. Tucker would have been the one to deal with that kind of tech, of course. "Is he here too?"

"… We'll deal with that later," Sam said after a beat. "Anyway, they didn't get very far with it, because shortly after that there was a massive ghost invasion. There was open war. The Guys in White showed up and fought, but it just kept getting worse, and worse …" Sam seemed to get lost in her memories about here, and I was just silent. She had to be talking about the invasion of Pariah Dark.

I imagined what would have happened without the Red Hunter and myself there. Without my parents, there would have been no Fenton Ecto-Skeleton to help take Pariah Dark down. Even without the Ring of Rage, he was still way too powerful to be fought without it. And I remembered, distantly, the last thing I had seen before I fainted in Pariah's chambers: Vlad and every other ghost I knew, including the Fright Knight, helping me defeat Pariah.

Sam interrupted my thoughts. "There was a shift in power. Pariah Dark was the ghost that had invaded, but he was defeated by the new Ghost King – and I think he was probably even worse.

"He started kidnapping humans – just had ghosts overshadow them and walk them right into his clutches. And then, he implanted these in their heads." She reached back, shifting her leg, and I had to catch a dribble of peroxide. I was almost ready to dress the wound, but I looked up when she held out in her hand a small microchip, the size of maybe my pinky fingernail. It looked quashed.

"It alters thoughts," Sam explained. "Not this one, any more, but the working ones. This is the chip that was in _my_ head." She put it aside again while I tried to digest all this. "It basically made the whole human population docile, perfect servants, slaves, whatever. It's utter tyranny. And the Ghost King is always producing more and more ghost skeletons and recruiting more and more human slaves. He's taken over most of the US and Canada, or so we think. We don't exactly have TVs here." She smirked ruefully.

I was speechless. You probably would have been, too, if you'd been me. And still there were missing pieces to this puzzle, like how Sam had become the Red Hunter. Hadn't Vlad been Val's benefactor? Where was he in this story, anyway? In my dimension he had _caused _the Pariah Dark invasion, so … had he been killed, or what?

"How did you get your chip out?" I asked, patting a long strip of gauze over her gash.

"That … I can't tell you. Not yet." Sam gave me a skeptical look as I taped down the gauze. "You're pretty good at this."

She was changing the subject, and I didn't want to drop it. "Why can't you tell me?" I asked stubbornly.

Sam glared at me. "I don't trust you."

I gaped at her. "Why not? You said ghosts can't bleed red!" I protested, holding up the finger she'd sliced open.

Sam's smirk was cold and ironic. "For all I know, you're a clone, or one of the Ghost King's lackeys. You might not even know it." She bared her teeth slightly in a snarl. "No one is trustworthy. You better learn that fast." She stood up the moment I was done taping the gauze. "You're going to stay here until Ferina's had a chance to look at you. We clear?"

I felt hurt and angry. "You let me take care of that but you won't trust me anyway?"

"Those were all my own supplies, and I would have seen you do something stupid like try to poison me. That's not the Ghost King's style, anyway. Now, stay here."

I watched her leave, disconcerted.

&

I wasn't alone for long, though. 'Keira' came around the corner a few minutes later, her arms crossed over her chest.

I didn't quite know what to say, honestly. If Sam didn't trust me, there was no way Val trusted me either. What had Sam said about me? I could be a clone? So somewhere, someone had figured out how to make clones and were making them for the Ghost King, who was even worse than Pariah Dark. Somehow.

The only being I could think of was my evil future self … but he couldn't possibly exist. I was dead here (a thought that gave me the shivers). Wasn't I?

I mulled over this for a while, plucking at my slowly drying jeans. Maybe I wasn't actually dead. Maybe, instead, I was a full ghost. I didn't even know what to think about that one, though – and it certainly didn't mean I was my evil future self.

"Ferina will be here soon," Val said suddenly, glancing over her shoulder and down the piping.

"Oh," was all I could say. I wanted to know if 'Tray' was here, and I'll admit that I was pretty nervous about being seen by Jazz. Sam's reaction had been cold, flat, almost angry, but Jazz might cry, and I didn't think I could handle that. I mean, I had to go back home!

"Uh … uh, Keira," I said slowly. "That's not your real name is it?"

Valerie raised an eyebrow at me. "Why're you asking?"

I made a helpless gesture. "I'm just confused. I didn't mean to end up here, I'm not a spy, and I just really want to go home." My voice almost cracked on the word 'home'. I missed Mom and Dad and their crazy ways already, and I missed my Sam and my Tucker, who were both normal and relatively carefree. I mean, I had thought I had it hard, but at least I wasn't living in the sewers. And where were the adults, anyway? Were they all captured by the Ghost King?

Keira's eyes softened slightly when I said that. "Look, kid, Ferina will check you, you're probably clean, and then we'll all trust you," she said. "That make you feel better?"

"A little," I admitted, still feeling sorry for myself.

"Here she comes," Keira said abruptly, and stepped aside, admitting none other than my sister. She wore overalls and her hair was pulled back in a ponytail with a kerchief tied in it.

Her mouth opened, then closed, and I raised my eyebrows, my eyes widening a little.

"Hi, Ja—uh … Ferina," I said, her fake name sounding flat in my mouth.

"It really is you," Jazz said softly, flying across the 'room' and hugging me.

"Oof!" I said, but actually, it felt really good to be hugged and cared about. It might have been stupid, but I felt really guilty about dying in this universe. If I'd been alive, nothing bad would have happened in the first place. "Okay, um, you can stop now," I said automatically, for the sake of appearances.

Jazz let me go and held my shoulders, looking at me from arm's length. "I just … Kobal told you, right?"

I raised my eyebrows. "Who's Kobal?"

Jazz leaned forward and whispered in my ear. "Sam," she said. "Kobal is Sam."

&

_While Jazz hugged me, my ghost half …_

"I already told you," I exclaimed, exasperated and exhausted at once, "I didn't do anything to Danny! Technus did something to me, and then he just disappeared with Technus!"

"Then you're on a first-name basis with other ghosts," my mom remarked coolly.

My eyebrow twitched. I was angry, but I was also completely at my parents' mercy and possessing about as much leverage as I did when I came home with an 'F' on a paper. "Uh, that's just what he goes by. What do you want me to do, call him Ghost X?"

"Don't force me to make things more uncomfortable for you," Mom warned, her eyes flashing. Yes, I say 'flashed'. I could have sworn lightning went through them.

"More uncomfortable? How?" I couldn't help mocking. "It can't possibly be worse than the Thermos."

About then my mom pulled out a remote control, which made my Dad beam proudly, and I suddenly had a worst-case-scenario flash-forward in which my parents were electrocuting me again and again until my spectral form just fell apart. "Okay, okay, I believe you! Don't!" I exclaimed, waving my hands in front of myself.

Mom paused, and Dad pouted. If I'd had a heart, it would have been trying to pound its way out of my chest. "Then tell us the truth," Mom snapped.

"It _is_ the truth! Why would I lie about this?" I cried.

An electrical pulse flashed through me from the bars under my feet. "Ow!" I shouted, feeling my form waver slightly from the shock.

"I can do this all day," Mom warned.

"And I can watch her!" Dad enthused.

I felt very ill and disoriented, gritting my teeth against the knowledge my own parents were about to torture a damning lie out of me.

_Tbc_

_Remember Kobal? From the short little teaser? Yeah. Hope that one leaves you in knots for a while. Bwahaha._

_I'd like to say thank you to MoonyMonster, who gave me the idea for the previous dimension-travel that was mentioned in canon, and to Bluemoonalto, for her concept of what a ghost's existence is like in the Fenton Thermos._

_Also, apologies to YumeTakato, whose name I misspelled. I assure you, this was not because I watch Puffy AmiYumi: I just misread 'Yume' (dream) as 'Yumi' (bow, as in 'bow and arrow'). A thousand apologies._

_Finally, thank you again to everyone who reviewed the last chapter: YumeTakato, Sword on Fire (Jazmin3 Firewing), Sasia, Amitra, and Unrealistic. You guys rock. You rock out loud!_

_Reviews are loved and adored._


	5. Parental Bonding

**Chapter 5: Parental Bonding**

My parents watched me carefully as I remained crouched in their cage. I tried not to panic, resting my head against my knees wearily. Sam and Tucker were probably wondering where I was by now. Maybe they'd come by. Maybe they could help sort this out.

I needed Jazz.

I knew it deep inside me. Jazz was smart, brilliant, even, and she would know exactly what to say to our parents to save me. I didn't have the words, and I didn't have my parents on my side. They hated me and wanted to take me apart molecule by molecule.

"Well?" Mom asked, impatient. I could hear an underlying edge of urgency in her voice. They had to be terrified for Danny. _I_ was terrified for my human half, too, but that was just a matter of egocentricity. I was more worried for me right now.

"I didn't do anything to Danny," I said to my knees, and quickly levitated myself off of the cage floor.

"Tell us the truth!" Mom snapped.

Unfortunately, there wasn't enough room between my feet and the cage to protect me from the current; it jumped to me, and I yelped aloud again, falling back to the cage floor in pained surprise. If I had been human, I would have been panting and shuddering; instead, I was shaken and drained. Every shock seemed to drag more energy from my spectral form.

Jazz had explained this to me once, I thought, but it was hard to remember what she'd said. It had been technical, but the jist of it was that ghosts were pretty much made of three primary aspects: post-human consciousness, ectoplasm, and energy, usually electrical. Ghosts could produce shocks, and they often could be drained or even destroyed by them.

I mustered myself and looked up at my parents, clenching my jaw. "I didn't do anything! Ow!" I jerked instinctively at the responding shock. "Why would I lie to you about this? You're going to kill me!" I cried.

Mom frowned slightly at that. "Odd way of putting it," she observed. "Did you hear that, honey?"

Dad nodded. "A better question would be: why would you tell the truth?"

Mom rolled her eyes. "Yes, Jack, but he said we're going to kill him. But he's already dead. Have you ever heard a ghost say that?"

"Have you ever listened to a ghost, ever? No!" I interrupted, desperate and angry and scared. "Danny and I are – are – I don't want anything bad to happen to him either! Not all ghosts are bad!"

"Oh, certainly," Mom said, almost pleasant.

I gaped at her. Had she really just conceded ghosts weren't all bad? "Then why don't you believe me?" My voice came out as more of a plea than I meant it to.

"Because you, Phantom, were overshadowing my son!" Mom snapped.

I recoiled at that. What could I say? Even if I told them the truth now, they wouldn't believe me. I had no way to prove it. Even if I pointed out every similarity between myself and my human half, they wouldn't see. They didn't want to see. And until this moment, I hadn't wanted them to see.

"O-okay," I stammered. "I shouldn't have. I'm sorry. B-but it doesn't change the fact that I didn't do anything to—Aaugh!" I jerked off my feet, squeezing my eyes shut in pain when Mom zapped me again.

"Must we go around in circles all day?" Mom demanded.

I wished desperately, my brain in a haze, that I'd let my parents remember what had happened when Freakshow had the Reality Gauntlet. At the time I'd thought everything would change; my parents wouldn't let me ghost-hunt alone any more, Sam and Tucker's parents would stop them from hanging out with me, Mr. Lancer would be told. But if I had let them remember, this wouldn't be happening. We would be working together to find my human half. Instead, they were going to destroy me by inches.

I shook my head shakily in response to Mom's question. "Can … can I make a deal?" I asked weakly.

Mom looked at Dad, and Dad shrugged eloquently. Mom looked back at me. "What sort of deal?"

"Just listen to me for a second," I pleaded. "I have an idea what happened to Danny. Just … even if you don't like it, don't electrocute me, okay? I can't tell you anything if you take me apart molecule by molecule," I pointed out.

Mom seemed to think about it. "Talk, ghost," she said, putting aside the remote for the moment.

I let out a relieved sigh, feeling a little more confident. I carefully settled back on the floor. "Okay. Um …" How could I cast my theory? "You saw what happened to him, right? He kind of got sucked away at the same time as Technus."

"I didn't see that," Dad said, sounding amazed. Mom just gave me a skeptical look.

I pressed on, talking quickly. "Remember when Wa—uh, when …" No, it would be a bad idea to mention the time I'd supposedly kidnapped the mayor. I gulped and restarted. "All right, I've seen you use the Fenton Bazooka, right? It makes little ghost portals that suck ghosts back into the Ghost Zone. What I saw happen to Danny was just like that. I think he got sucked away to … someplace else," I finished lamely.

"That's ridiculous!" Dad announced. "Whoever heard of an inter-dimensional portal that sucked in humans?"

And that was when I remembered where I'd heard the idea before. It had been in my human half's memories, one of the ones that I only vaguely remembered, but—"But _you_ did that once, didn't you? Sucked the whole house into a parallel dimension?"

Dad blinked at me. "I did? I did!" He looked amazed, but it quickly faded to a skeptical look. "How did you know about that?"

_Oh no._ I hadn't counted on Dad asking that. "I … that …"

"Did you get that from our son's head?" Mom demanded.

We were wandering back into dangerous territory. I tried desperately to drag the subject matter back to Danny and away from me. "Yes, but the point is, couldn't Danny have ended up in another dimension on accident?"

Mom's gaze didn't leave me, but she seemed to be thinking about it. I tensed, waiting for her to decide I was lying to her.

The irony hadn't escaped me. After all the times I'd lied to my parents about my ghost-hunting, the one time I was telling the truth, they didn't believe me.

"It's possible," Mom said finally.

I slumped gratefully, dropping my head onto my knees again in sheer relief.

"Jack, we'd better check the machines, see if it's possible that something reacted and created an inter-dimensional portal," Mom continued, talking to Dad. Then her gaze went back to me.

"I'm not done with you yet," she threatened, pocketing the remote and moving across the room to our ruined mainframe.

And me? I just closed my eyes. My shoulders shook with silent, hysterical, relieved laughter, until I finally drifted off into ghostly sleep.

&

When I say 'sleep', it's hard to explain. Ghosts don't really replenish their energy from sleep like humans do; the only way to get back their former strength is to pretty much bathe in ectoplasm or just let time pass. I was just resting to pass the time, I guess you could say.

When I 'woke up', the lab was dark except for the gentle ectoplasmic glow of the cage around me and my own spectral light. I blinked wearily, wondering where my parents had gone. Did they really trust me not to try to break out of this cage?

Probably not, I reflected, reaching out and pressing my hand against the green glow. It didn't hurt; it was just repelling my hand. I couldn't even wrap my fingers around the bars. If I did anything that could harm the cage, I'd probably set off alarms everywhere, and then all I'd have to look forward to was dissection.

If they really believed me, I realized, I had no cards left to play. They had no reason to care if Phantom stayed 'alive' any more, so I probably _didn't _have anything more to look forward to besides dissection, anyway.

_Jazz wouldn't let that happen to me_, I thought. She wouldn't, either, if she got a whiff of it. She'd fire off a bunch of psychobabble to make my parents wonder if they wanted to destroy me to rectify their lost childhoods or something, and free me. The thought made me brighten.

I wondered if Sam and Tucker had come looking for me yet. Probably not, I thought. Dad would probably drag them down to the lab to show me off or something. I knew he was concerned for my human half, but that's just how Dad was. Mom was probably working furiously on a way to find my human half, too, so it probably wouldn't be too long. Mom and Dad were both geniuses, after all.

I just had to find a way to survive that long.

There wasn't anything to do, and I was still severely shaken by being … let's face it: I had been tortured by my own parents. It was the kind of thing that would haunt my dreams for the rest of my life. I had been scared and hurt and I wasn't going to recover anytime soon. It would have been at least somewhat okay if I knew they wouldn't do it ever again, but just then, sitting huddled in a cage I could barely stretch out in and couldn't stand up in, I curled up into a ball and wrapped my arms around my knees, trying to think of anything but what had just happened and what could happen again.

I don't know how long I was there alone in the dark, but eventually I'd worn every scenario for my near future to exhaustion. Almost bored, I formed a ball of ectoplasmic energy in one hand, and it glowed like a candle, illuminating my corner of the lab gently. I let it go, leaving it floating aimlessly next to me, and formed another one in my other hand. I let that one go, too.

Interesting. I hadn't really experimented with this before. I formed a third, and that, too, remained stable when I released it.

I'm not a great juggler of life, as my grades and lack of sleep might attest to, but I'm not half-bad with objects. I was tempted to juggle the ectoplasm now, but the cage was too stout. I had a mental image of what would happen if the harmless ectoplasm hit the cage: sirens, my parents flipping out … I stopped thinking about it there.

After some consideration, however, I remembered that gravity just isn't an issue for ghosts. If I wanted gravity to be to the left, I could pretend that was true, and it would work for me.

I stretched out on my back in the cage, floating maybe an inch off the floor, and juggled sideways. Then downwards, the balls springing back to my hands like they were on yoyo strings from somewhere near my feet.

It was a great distraction.

I was totally absorbed in figuring out whether or not I could juggle two balls towards my head and one towards my feet when the lights in the lab were flicked on. I jumped, and all three orbs winked out of existence.

Mom was standing in front of the stairs to the lab, next to the light switch, and looking at me quizzically. She didn't say anything. Neither did I. I wondered if she had caught my at my little juggling act and what she was thinking. _Probably that I'm legally insane._

Mom heaved a sigh then, as if something very personally upsetting had just occurred. "I suppose you're telling the truth," she said.

_She believes me!_ I would have leapt for joy if I'd had room, but I couldn't help the sarcastic edge from frustration tainting my answer: "Finally!"

Mom scowled at that. "That doesn't mean I'm letting you go. You're a perfect specimen," she explained.

My elation fell flat on its face. It must have showed, because Mom looked away. I wondered if I reminded her of a disappointed Danny and viciously hoped I did. "You're very welcome for helping find your son," I spat.

Mom kept frowning, but she didn't look back at me.

I flipped over and glared at the wall, wishing I could go back to sleep.

&

I was back in the dark for a little while again I wished I knew what was happening upstairs. Were my parents working on a way to get Danny back? Surely they wouldn't turn to experimenting on ghosts until they'd brought their kid back safe and sound, so I was probably safe for a while – that is, if I didn't die of sheer boredom and anticipation first. I wondered if I could fade away from apathy. I doubted very much if I'd have a chance to figure out how to recombine with Danny before my parents laid into me.

When I was just working up to a really good bout of moping, I heard sounds at the top of the stairs. I sat up suddenly: was that Sam's voice? And Tucker's? Maybe I was imagining it!

"Great! I'll show you!"

That, however, was definitely my dad. I sighed aloud. At least Dad was only about to parade me around in front of my best friends and not a bunch of scientists or whatever. Probably.

I heard Dad's footsteps pounding down the stairs, closely followed by two more pairs of shoes. I lifted my head, trying to look less weary.

It was, in fact, Dad, and Sam and Tucker were right behind him. Both of them stopped short at the sight of me, and when Dad turned towards them, I offered a smirk and a tiny wave to reassure them. "See? Our first capture! Aha!"

"Danny!" Sam exclaimed, and then quickly backtracked. "Phaaantom. Danny Phantom! Er, wow, Mr. Fenton, that's awesome." Her voice was laced with sarcasm.

Tucker was a little more subtle. "Congratulations," he said smoothly, but his eyes didn't leave me.

Sam seemed to recover a bit. "Hey, uh, how about you get back to finding Danny, and we'll talk to Phantom here about it." She gave me a pointed look, and I shrugged a little, unsure what she was asking.

"That's a great idea," Dad enthused. "I'll be upstairs if you need me! Oh, and if he tries to escape, don't worry, we've got a first-rate alarm system here!" He pounded back upstairs.

As soon as Dad was out of earshot, Sam threw up her hands. "Danny, what the heck are you doing? Why'd you make up a crazy story like that? Change back and kick down the door, for goodness sake!"

"I can't," I said shortly. "I—"

"What do you mean, you can't?" Tucker wanted to know.

"I'm trying to tell you! Just shut up and listen!" I protested. When Sam and Tucker had quieted, I explained what had happened that morning. I carefully left out the part about the electrocution, though. "They're going to hang onto me, though," I added miserably.

"Oh, Danny," Sam sighed.

Tucker was perusing the controls scattered about the room. "I can probably bust you out of there," he said, fiddling with a knob. "I'll just disable the ghost shield. Then you can fly off, we'll activate the alarms, and say you escaped."

That wasn't a half-bad plan, and I wanted out of the cage desperately, but there was one thing stopping me. "I'll have to go into hiding, and I want …" I wanted to be close to my parents while they tried to get my human half back, but what good would it do for me to stay inside here?

"That's still better than being in here," Sam pointed out, crossing her arms. She raised an eyebrow at me. "Are you doing okay?"

_No, no I'm not okay!_ It was nice to know my friends were just as concerned about my ghost half as my human half, though. In my head, we were the same person, but I remembered vividly how my friends had really not wanted anything to do with my ghost half the last time we'd been split. Then again, I had wanted Sam to switch to bright, primary colors … "I'm fine," I said aloud after a moment. "Just tired."

"That might be a side effect of the split. Let's get you out of there," said Sam.

"On it," Tucker announced, hooking up his PDA to the motherboard.

"Sam? Tucker?"

"It's your mom!" Sam hissed. "Tucker, stop!"

"But—"

"STOP!" I demanded in unison with Sam. The last thing I wanted was for my friends to get caught saving me! They'd never be let down in the lab again, and then that would be it!

"Okay, okay!" Tucker disconnected his PDA just in time, as my mom came back downstairs.

She was followed by Jazz, whose eyes widened at the sight of me before she gave a tiny, secretive nod with a small smile.

"Mom, this is perfect!" She gasped suddenly. "I can interview Phantom for my thesis! I'll just stay out of your way while you rescue Danny, okay?"

Mom smiled indulgently at her. "Okay, honey!" She raised her eyebrows at me, and I threw back a glare. "Well, you be careful …"

"Don't worry," Jazz said. "We've got it under control." She winked at me.

And for the first time all day, I felt safe.

_Tbc_

_As per Zizzo's remarks, I realize that it may be a little hard to understand when I'm constantly switching POV within a chapter. I'm going to try to stick with one chapter, one POV, although I make no guarentees._

_Things aren't over between Danny Phantom and his parents, though …_

_Special thanks to Bluemoonalto, Amitra, Rakahn, Sasia, Jazmin3 Firewing, YumeTakato, HiddenAuthor, Unrealistic, and Zizzo, for their kind reviews. You're all very inspiring!_

_Amitra: I would be very, very flattered if you drew fanart for this story. Please do! Thank you!_

_Reviews are adored and appreciated._


	6. Bitter Reunions

**Chapter 6: Bitter Reunions**

Jazz released me after a long moment, tears in her eyes as she smiled happily. "Kobal said you came from another dimension," she said, wiping her eyes.

"Uh, yeah," I answered. "Technus attacked the lab and—"

"It's okay," Jazz interrupted. "I believe you – at least, I believe _you_ believe what you're saying." She leaned over me, reaching back behind my ear and feeling my skull with careful fingers.

"What do you mean? And what're you doing?" I wanted to know.

"I'm checking for a microchip," Jazz explained, completely businesslike for the moment. "Kobal probably told you what they do; there's no harm in that. You see, we can't trust you because you really can't trust yourself. If you have a chip, the Ghost King can make you believe anything he wants to – well, within reason. But for us Fentons, anything is in reason, right?"

I laughed weakly at that as Jazz's fingers probed through my hair. "I guess." The Jazz I knew refused to accept that she had any of the neuroses of the rest of her family, but … I guess Jazz _was_ the only Fenton left. The thought made my insides turn cold.

"I can't feel anything," Jazz remarked. "That's a good sign." Then she reached for her belt, pulling out a weird-looking … well, it looked a little like a gun. "This is a limited EMP device. It'll deactivate anything like a microchip in your brain. Tray designed it," she said proudly. "Just to be sure, I'm going to use this on you. Is that okay?"

I could see Keira over Jazz's shoulder, giving me a scrutinizing look. The idea of using an EMP device on my head made me more than just a little nervous, but I could just imagine the reaction saying 'no' would get me from Sam – Kobal. "Okay," I said uncertainly.

Jazz sensed my nervousness. "Don't worry," she reassured me. "You'll just feel a little woozy afterwards." She pressed the gun to the space right behind my ear.

I tensed instinctively, squeezing my eyes shut. Then I heard and felt the click of the trigger, and …

A few minutes must have passed, because I was flat on my back and Jazz was gently patting my cheek. "Okay are you?'

"Wha?" I mumbled. I hadn't heard that right, had I?

"Backwards things are somewhat times at," Jazz said.

"You got that right," I groaned, clutching my head. What had that thing done, rewired my ears?

"Goes away it," Jazz promised. "Rest."

That I could do. I closed my eyes.

&

When I opened my eyes again, I didn't feel like I'd slept at all. I sat up abruptly, and a tired, scrappy blanket that had been laid over me fell into my lap.

"You're up," said a familiar voice, and I turned towards it. Tucker was sitting on the ledge opposite me, dressed in a pair of baggy overalls and long sleeves. There were burn marks on his hands, I noticed, but more than anything I noticed his hair, which looked a lot like the time Sam had turned Tucker goth. "Can't believe it's really you, man. Well, I guess it's not really _you_, but it is."

My ears were back to normal, thank goodness. I rubbed them anyway. "I get it," I answered, forcing a grin. "Your design needs some work, dude."

Tucker smirked at me. "Hey, it works, and so far no permanent effects. That's more than anyone else here can say." He cocked his head slightly. "Gotta tell you, I just came over to see for myself. Danny Fenton, in the flesh – literally!"

"Not for long," I muttered, mostly to myself. "I got here by accident. I've gotta find a way home."

Tucker nodded, but he was very sober as he said, "I hear you, man. Kobal's not sure if she buys the whole story about the dimension thing yet, but Ferina and I believe you." He shrugged slightly. "I'll do what I can to help you get home, you know? But I've kind of got my hands full."

"What exactly is going on here?" I asked, gesturing around the pipe we were sitting in. "Sa—Kobal explained it a little, but …"

"Long story short? We're everyone in Amity Park who's been deprogrammed," Tucker explained. "Not much of a life, huh? But we're right under the Ghost King's seat of power here, so we've got the best chance of taking him down, too."

I blanched a little. "Yeah, about that … um, can you tell me who the heck the Ghost King is?"

Tucker hesitated for a long moment. "That's not such a good idea …"

"Why not? What is the big deal about names around here?" I demanded, starting to get frustrated.

"The chips are networked," said Jazz. Tucker and I both looked up to see her coming into the little alcove, and she sat down next to Tucker, across from me. "They carry the identification of the slave in them. Whenever one is deactivated, the name of the deprogrammed person is logged with every microchip in the vicinity. It's kind of like a silent alarm system for the ghosts; if you say the name of a deprogrammed person within earshot of someone with a chip, ghosts just come swarming down to find them." She licked her lips, looking unhappy.

"Does that mean everyone here used to be programmed?" I asked, feeling a little sick to my stomach. I'd seen Tucker being controlled by ghosts before, and it hadn't been pretty; I didn't even want to imagine Sam, or Jazz or Val.

Jazz and Tucker looked at each other. "Most of us, yeah," Tucker acknowledged. "But not _us._" He pointed between the two of them.

"But the Ghost King knows who we are," Jazz added, "so we took new names, too. Just to be safe."

Everything here was about caution, and the secretive, fearful air was really catching. I lowered my voice a bit. "Then why do you have to use those names here?"

Tucker and Jazz looked at each other again, and this time it was Jazz who answered.

"Can't hurt to be safe," she said.

&

Not long after that Tucker said he had to get back to a project, and Jazz went with him. "We're two pipes down to the left," Tucker told me. "Come over later and I'll show you what we're all about."

"We?" I asked.

"Ferina and I," Tucker grinned. "She gets the ideas, and I do the mechanical work." Then he smiled at Jazz in a way that I recognized immediately.

Tucker and Jazz, together? My brain tried to implode, but thankfully didn't.

While I sat around and waited for Sam or Val or someone to come back, I found myself wondering about my powers. I had my ghost sense; had any other powers come back yet? I tried to turn my hand invisible, but nothing happened. I glared at my offending hand. Was I really stripped of my powers somehow?

I concentrated harder, glaring at my hand. _Turn invisible. Turn invisible._

It remained stubbornly visible, and I sighed, dropping my hand. Maybe I was lucky that I had almost no ghostly attributes. Obviously everyone here hated ghosts; I would too, if I'd been fighting a war with them for year. Then I laughed to myself; I _had _been fighting a war with ghosts for a year, but they hadn't _completely _ruined my life. (They were working on it, though.) Here, everything had been destroyed.

I heard a sound and I looked up. Sam was standing in the entrance to her little alcove, fully suited up in her Red Hunter outfit. Only the visor hadn't been pulled over her face. She gave me a scrutinizing look. "Ferina and Tray both believe your story, and since you obviously know nothing about what's happened to us, I'm giving you the benefit of the doubt."

She was so cold it made me want to shiver. "Gee, thanks," I said sarcastically.

Sam brushed off my tone and crossed the room, sitting next to me. "Thanks for taking care of my leg," she said. Before I could reply, she continued. "I guess you can see we're in a really bad situation here. Most of the adults are programmed. Deprogramming them has been … unsuccessful."

I was silent. If they had removed chips from some of the parents' brains and found they were still brainwashed, I didn't want to know what had been done to them.

"A lot of the people here used to go to Casper High," she continued. "Tray and Ferina have been adapting Fenton technology for self-defense and attacking. We've been sending out a few groups to round up slaves and bring them back for deprogramming; someday, hopefully soon, we'll have enough technology and people to revolt."

_And what about you? Where'd you get that suit?_ I wondered to myself. "Sounds pretty ambitious," I said, trying to keep the conversation safe.

Sam smiled fleetingly. There was something nostalgic in the look. "Yeah," she sighed. "Anyway, that's not what I came to talk about – at least not all of it. You had an ecto-gun with you when you showed up, so I take it in your dimension, your family is still a bunch of crazy ghost-hunters."

I laughed at that. It wouldn't have been funny if circumstances had been less dire, but right now I was looking for something to laugh at. "Yeah, they're pretty nuts," I agreed. "But they were more right than they thought."

"Can you tell me about it?" Sam asked. "I mean … if there's anything at all you can tell us that will help us out …"

"Oh, sure," I started, about to launch into my home's history, but then I hesitated. How would this Sam react to hearing that I was half-ghost? I wasn't sure I wanted to find out. "Um … er …"

Sam sat forward, ready for me to start my tale. I took a deep breath. _I guess I'll just have to try to leave the part about me being a ghost out of it._

"I guess I'll start with the accident you talked about," I began.

Sam's eyebrows shot up. "That happened to you? How're you--?"

"Pure accident," I assured her. "Seriously. I'm lucky I'm alive." _After all, I'm half dead._ "Anyway, uh, I got out just in time, but that activated the Ghost Portal …"

I told her about the various ghosts that had come through, describing them as I went. As I named ghosts, Sam nodded knowledgeably, although Skulker had her a bit confused. "Skulltech?" she asked.

"That's Skulker and Technus combined. Technus was the ghost with me," I explained. "They didn't combine in my universe."

"Aah."

I was about to tell her about Vlad when inspiration struck. I hadn't been sure how to explain Vlad without revealing myself, but then I had an idea: why not say 'Danny Phantom' was someone separate from me, and 'Plasmius' was someone separate from Vlad? It was sheer brilliance.

However, there was still the problem of explaining who Vlad was without saying his name. "So my family went to Wisconsin to see this guy that my parents had known since college," I started. "Uh … a billionare. He has a fake name for his company, Dalv …" I hoped this would ring a bell with Sam.

It did. "Him," she said softly.

"Him?" I asked, instantly curious. "What do you call him?"

"Sergei," Sam answered.

He had a fake name? It was my turn to be surprised. "Wait. He's part of your … uh, rebellion thing?"

"Resistance," Sam corrected. "And of course he is. Why wouldn't he be? He was our financer until the Ghost King's realm reached Wisconsin."

"What happened then?" I wanted to know.

"He went into hiding, like us. He's one of the few people who was never programmed."

Sam sounded like she _respected_ him. I felt repulsed. "Then you trust him?" I asked, trying not to sound bitter. _Do you have problems with traitors, then?_ I wondered darkly.

Sam leveled a flat gaze at me. "He's the one that showed us how to surgically remove microchips. He removed mine."

This couldn't possibly be the Vlad I knew, but Sam was starting to give me a look that dared me to challenge her. I backed down. "Okay. Uh, well, his castle was haunted by the Wisconsin Dairy King and a ghost named Plasmi—mmph!"

Sam had clapped a hand over my mouth, and I stared at her.

"Don't say the Ghost King's name," she ordered. "Ever."

Vlad Plasmius was the Ghost King?

Okay, I could see that. But back in my world, he hadn't had the power to do that. He would have had to use the Fenton Ecto-Skeleton, and that had never been built in this world! And besides, why would he be programming people with microchips and yet deprogramming other people? It made no sense!

Unless …

Unless Vlad Plasmius and Vlad Masters were two separate people.

I didn't like where this was going. The similarities to my evil future and this world were growing.

I nodded vigorously so Sam would understand that I wouldn't say 'Plasmius' again. She took her hand away from my mouth.

"I guess he's not the Ghost King in your world?" she asked quietly.

"No," I admitted. "The Ghost King is Pariah Dark, and he's locked away in a sarcophagus – hopefully for good," I answered, my tone dark.

"… Your world sounds nice," Sam said, her tone a little wistful.

"It is," I agreed quietly, looking down at my hands and feeling inexplicably guilty.

"Anyway, you were saying?"

"Um …" I tried to remember where I'd left off. "Oh yeah. Uh, anyway, the – well, Dad calls him the Wisconsin Ghost, so I'll go with that. The Wisconsin Ghost had a huge grudge against Dad for some reason, and I guess he was in love with my mom? So he tried to make Dad look like an idiot at the reunion thing so Mom would leave him. It was totally ridiculous. Everyone knows my dad is kind of dumb, so …" I shrugged.

I realized then that I wouldn't have to mention 'Phantom' at all for this particular case. "But my dad managed to beat him anyway, and he left us alone for the rest of the reunion."

"How did your dad beat him?" Sam asked, intensely interested.

I gulped and hurried to cover. "Oh, I dunno," I shrugged. "I wasn't there for that part. I was watching football reruns with Ja—Ferina."

"Too bad," Sam sighed. "That would have been good to know."

_Not really, _I thought. Blackmail wouldn't help out the resistance here much. But instead I continued. "When we got home, though, there was this ghost dog …" I launched into the tale of Valerie's fall from grace amongst the A-list crowd. "And I guess … well, I guess you must know that the Wisconsin Ghost has a lot of technology at his fingertips, since he's got these microchip things. He gave Va—Keira a suit to hunt ghosts … a suit that's exactly like yours, actually." I waited for the reaction to that.

"Really? Funny," was all Sam said.

I waited for her to go on, but she just looked at me expectantly. I sighed and continued.

Things didn't get sticky again until I got to Pariah Dark. I was going to have to mention Phantom if I wanted to tell her anything that might help them out.

"Okay, uh … do you believe in good ghosts?" I asked.

Sam scowled. "No," she answered flatly.

That wasn't good. I bit my lip. "Er, I do. There's one ghost haunting Amity Park called Phantom, and he thinks of himself as the protector of our town. He fights a lot of the ghosts when my parents aren't there." I looked at Sam, hoping for a response, but she had gone chalk white.

"Kobal?" I asked hesitantly.

She licked her lips. "You know Phantom?" she asked.

I blinked. "Um … yes?"

"But that's impossible," Sam said slowly. Her eyes narrowed at me.

"Phantom is _your_ ghost!"

_Tbc_

_Bwahahaha! How is Danny going to get out of this one?_

_A special thank you to Horselvr4evr123, YumeTakato, HiddenAuthor, Amitra, Sasia, and Unrealistic for your kind reviews. I'm glad you're enjoying the story thus far, and I hope you continue to enjoy it in the weeks to come._

_Reviews are appreciated and adored._


	7. My Brother's Keeper

**Chapter 7: My Brother's Keeper**

My sister waited for Mom to go back upstairs before talking again. "This is one heck of a pickle you've gotten yourself into, Danny," she said.

"Thanks for clarifying that for me, Jazz," I snorted, sarcasm lacing my voice. "I wasn't sure."

Jazz ignored my tone. "Are you okay?"

Inexplicable anger rose in my throat. _Why does everyone keep asking me that? NO, I'M NOT OKAY!_ But I let out my breath in a hiss instead. "I'll be okay. I'm just … really tired."

I knew it was true even as I said it. I felt like I could go upstairs and sleep for a hundred years.

"We were just about to free him," Sam explained.

"No, _I_ was about to free him, and Sam was going to scream like a banshee that Phantom's escaped," Tucker corrected her.

Jazz pondered this for several moments longer than I wanted her to. "Um, can I please get out of here?"

Tucker was already hooking his PDA up again. "On it, Danny," he reported, happily absorbed in his technology.

"Wait a moment," Jazz said.

"What?" Sam and I spoke at once. Tucker rolled his eyes.

"Not again …"

Jazz looked surprised by the protest; then she raised her hands in front of her, waving them apologetically. "Oh, no, I just think we ought to think this through. If Danny is in another dimension, and the rest of Danny is here …" she fell silent, absorbed in thought.

I pounded a fist against the Ghost Shield, and it produced an equal wave of power in response, thrusting my fist back forcefully. "Argh! Jazz, think faster!"

"Okay, okay!" Jazz glared at me. "I was just doing research on psychic connections, you see? You probably have a connection with your human half. I don't know much about parallel dimensions, but there's supposedly an infinite number of them. How're we supposed to find Danny in an infinite number of dimensions without some way of locating him?"

"… You're suggesting using me as homing device," I said.

"That's not a half-bad idea," Sam offered, but I rolled my eyes.

"Oh, I'll bet Mom and Dad will _really_ go for that. Sure, let's team up with a ghost to find Danny! Hah!"

"Hey, your dad teamed up with you against Vlad," Tucker reminded me.

He had a point. I huffed irritably. "What does this have to do with getting me out of this thing?"

"You just said it a minute ago," Sam answered me. "You'd have to go into hiding, so how're you supposed to help your parents out from a warehouse on the edge of town or something?"

Now _she_ had a point. I scowled at nothing in particular.

Jazz was looking at me in that 'I'm about to psychoanalyze you' way that I really hated. "What?"

"Are you really okay, Danny?" Jazz asked, only with a more pointed look this time.

"Is it wrong for me to want out of this dog cage?" I shot back. Okay, I was a little freaked about the possibility of being left alone with Mom and Dad again while I was in here, but I didn't really want to say that aloud.

Something seemed to click with Jazz, but she didn't say anything about it. "No, of course not," she comforted me. "I have an idea. I'll go talk to Mom and Dad about how you're willing to cooperate and help find Danny. If it backfires, I'll come down and we'll free you right away, okay? But if they agree, we'll make the terms and conditions: you have to be let free again."

I gave Jazz a helpless look. "They think I overshadowed my human half."

"So you were trying to protect him! Dad may want to take you apart molecule by molecule, but I think they were halfway to believing you were at least benign."

I looked at Sam and Tucker, hoping for some guidance, but they both shrugged at me. "It's worth a shot," Sam said.

"And I'm all set to let you out if you need it," Tucker reported.

I sighed with resignation. "All right," I agreed.

Jazz gave me a reassuring smile, approaching the cage and putting a hand right through the Ghost Shield to rest on my shoulder. It startled me until I remembered that it was only a ghost shield, not a human shield. "I promise I won't let Mom and Dad be alone with you until you're free, okay?"

I couldn't help the wave of affection I felt for my sister just then. I pressed my hand over hers. "Thanks."

Jazz withdrew her hand. "Okay, you just sit tight! This shouldn't take long." She ran back up the stairs.

I looked at Sam and Tucker. "Wanna bet five dollars you're busting me out of here in five minutes?" I asked.

Tucker grinned. "Dude, if anyone can convince your parents you're not evil, it's Jazz."

&

We had a long, tense ten minutes while Jazz talked to Mom and Dad. I started making ectoplasm balls again just to keep myself occupied: one, two, five … I was up to seven when Sam finally broke the silence. "Is that a new trick, Danny?"

I didn't look up at her. "I guess so. I've never been able to make ectoplasm that's stable apart from me."

"Dude!" Tucker exclaimed. "That's solid object ectoplasmic manipulation! The only other ghost that we've seen do that is—"

"Vlad!" Sam finished for him. "Danny, you're gaining on him!"

I grinned wanly. "I doubt it. But it's still a step up, right?"

There was noise at the top of the stairs before we could say anything more, and I hurriedly gathered the ectoplasm, crushing it between my fingers and inadvertently reabsorbing it. Tucker hid his connected PDA behind his back hurriedly.

Mom and Dad were coming down the stairs, and Jazz was with them. I shot her a worried look; she smiled and nodded slightly.

They had agreed? I could hardly believe it! Still, I relaxed marginally.

"Jazz tells us you're willing to make up for your behavior by helping us find Danny," Mom said.

So that was how Jazz had cast it? Well, I wasn't going to complain: it had worked! "Yeah," I nodded. "I want to make things even with you again."

Mom scrutinized me, and I tried to look innocent, although I doubted I succeeded much. No ghost looked innocent to Mom and Dad. "It's very dangerous," she warned.

"I'm a ghost," I pointed out wryly. All the same, I couldn't help but think it couldn't possibly be more dangerous than being electrocuted until I was an ectoplasmic smear.

"You could be trapped in a parallel dimension if we fail."

"You? Fail?" I scoffed, trying not to think of the hundreds of junked inventions my parents had made. "You caught me, you can't be that bad at anything."

Dad beamed proudly at that, then seemed to remember he was supposed to look stern. Sam was rolling her eyes behind their back.

Mom crossed her arms. "All right. Put out your wrists."

I blinked at her. "I can't put them out very far," I joked, presenting my wrists by pressing my upturned fists against the ghost shield.

That was obviously good enough for Mom. She reached through the bars, and I watched as my own mom snapped a pair of slightly glowing handcuffs onto my wrists. I recognized them dimly; they were very similar to the ones Skulker had strapped onto Val and me when he decided to hunt us in tandem. "Let me guess," I said when Mom opened her mouth. "These cancel out my ghost powers."

Mom closed her mouth again, looking a little surprised. "Yes," she answered after a moment. She stepped back. "I'm going to deactivate the shield now. If you try anything funny--!"

"I'm not going to do anything!" I snapped, exasperated by this point. "Don't you get it? I'm not evil, I'm not trying to destroy you, I didn't do anything to Danny, and I want to help!"

The outburst startled everyone in the room, I think. For a long moment, I was the object of everyone's pointed attention.

I didn't back down. "Go ahead. See if I try anything."

Mom watched me intently for one more moment, then turned towards the controls to the cage – or so I guessed. Apparently my outburst had accidentally given Tucker enough time to disconnect his PDA and shove it back in his pocket. Mom typed something into the computer, and the green glow around the cage faded.

Finally! I almost slammed my foot into the cage door to free myself, but stopped at the last second. That might be too aggressive for Mom and Dad.

Jazz was the one that courteously opened the cage door for me. I scooted out and stood, stretching my cuffed wrists above my head in exaltation of relative freedom, unable to help a smile spreading on my face. Jazz' face was carefully straight, but Sam was beaming.

"Okay," I said when I realized no one else was going to speak. "Where do we start?"

&

Mom led us back upstairs, a long line of troops going to battle. We went to the kitchen, where papers were spread all over the table. "It's just a blueprint for now, but we won't rest until it's built," Mom said, deathly serious.

"What is it?" Tucker asked, spreading his fingers over one of the sheets.

"It's an interdimensional portal!" Dad explained in his over-enthusiastic way. "It lets us view and enter other dimensions!"

The last time I had heard the word 'Portal' in connection with a Fenton Invention, I had become half-ghost. _What are they going to do, build it right next to the Ghost Portal? _I wondered wryly. I could see it now: Danny Phantom, Protector of Worlds. The thought made me hide a smirk. What would happen if I got caught in this portal? Would I be split infinitely across the universe? _Ew!_

I was so wrapped up in my own musings that I almost missed what Dad said next – although to be perfectly honest, that would have been impossible. Just between you and me, when Dad gets excited, his voice can be heard in China. I swear it's the truth.

Anyway, Dad continued. "It will only let us into the dimensions closest to our own!"

"Wait, hold up," Tucker protested, putting up a hand. I was willing to bet this was all very interesting to him. For me, it was verging on a foreign language. "What dimensions are closest to our own?"

"The theory goes that there are an infinite number of parallel universes, reflecting every possibility," Mom interjected. "But it's nearly impossible to go to a world that's extremely different from your own."

"And a good thing, too, or we'd still be stuck in that other parallel dimension!" Dad reminded us.

Jazz raised her eyebrows. "Wait, I remember that …"

"So all those shows about meeting your evil twin are basically impossible," Sam mused.

"Yes, dear, that's exactly it!" Mom beamed. Then she became serious again in a heartbeat, the way only my parents could. "If Danny were to survive the trip, there's only so many universes he could have been sent to – no more than a hundred or so. Possibly less, although I'll have to do more calculations to be sure," she explained.

Sam had gone a little pale at the way my mom said 'if Danny were to survive'.

"He's alive," I said aloud, mostly to reassure Sam, but the statement got me three pointed looks – my sister's look of warning, and my parents' looks of surprise.

Sam, at least, looked a little less upset.

I hastened to cover myself. "L-look, I overshadowed him, and I just have this feeling, okay?"

Mom didn't look impressed. I grew sheepish. "You were saying?" I prompted.

My mom's eyes narrowed slightly, but looked back down at the blueprints. "We're not sure how the portal will appear in other dimensions, and we have to hurry, of course – Danny could be in danger," she explained.

"And now that Phantom is helping us, we can move faster since a human doesn't have to be able to fit the portal!" Dad added. "It'll be like old times, right, Maddie? We'll make it just about the same size." Mom smiled indulgently at him.

'The same size'? "The same size?" Jazz, Tucker, and Sam all echoed in near unison my own thoughts.

"As our first ghost portal!" Dad said. "It was about yea big …" He showed us the space the first Ghost Portal had taken up with his hands, spreading them about a foot and a half from each other.

I didn't need the measurements; I had seen the portal in person not long ago, when I tried to stop Vlad from getting ecto-acne. I also knew there was only one person fitting through a hole that size.

"I can't fit through that with these on," I protested, holding out my wrists. Indeed, the cuffs prevented me from shifting my form or even flying and levitating; I was about as close to human as a ghost could get. So to speak.

"We'll think of something," Mom said absently, looking back through the blueprints. "The biggest challenge is figuring out how to get you back from each dimension. We don't know how permanent the portal will be on the other side."

"How long will it take you to make this?" Tucker asked, still shuffling through the blueprints.

"Not long! We Fentons can work 24-7 when we have to!" Dad reminded Tucker. A fact I knew all too well, and was ultimately grateful for. The last time they'd faced a huge crisis they could do something about had been when Pariah Dark invaded, and it had taken them two days to finish the (slightly faulty) Fenton Suit.

I was willing to accept the risks. "What're you going to do with me in the meantime?" I asked, almost dreading the answer.

Mom smiled. "You're going to wait here." She pointed out the window.

The green glow of the Fenton Ghost Shield washed over our backyard, and I sighed aloud. _So much for being trusted._

_Tbc_

_And now back to the pressing question you all want answered._

_Thanks to Rakahn, YumeTakato, Sasia, katiesparks, zizzy333, HiddenAuthor, Unrealistic, Anonymous Reader13, and Bluemoonalto for your wonderful reviews. They're secretly part of the steam that keeps me going._

_Reviews are appreciated and adored._


	8. What You Want

**Chapter 8: What You Want**

"_Phantom is _your_ ghost!"_

Oh, I was so _sunk!_ My mind raced. I was a full ghost here, then. Okay. Nothing I hadn't thought of before. But how was I supposed to explain him in my dimension?

"Uh … uh, are you sure we're talking about the same ghost?" I asked.

Sam's eyes had gone flat and hard, and she grabbed my wrist, squeezing hard. I yelped. "Ow, ow! What're you trying to do, break my arm?"

"Bones," Sam muttered to herself. "Red blood."

She didn't know about Plasmius and Vlad. She didn't know they were one and the same (or may have once been). She had no reason to suspect that there was such a thing as a half-ghost. I thanked heaven that there was no way a ghost could show up and set off my ghost sense here in this ghost-human shield. "Please let go," I begged, grasping my own wrist right above where her fingers were wrapped.

She didn't. Instead she twisted her arm, forcing my wrist up and my body to turn. It happened so fast from there that I'm not sure what happened, but I was on my knees, my stomach digging into the edge of the ledge we had been seated on and my arm pulled up and across my back, with Sam's knee planted in my spine. "What are you?"

Where had Sam learned that move? From Valerie? I gasped painfully, realizing I was virtually in the same position Sam had put me in when we first met. "I'm human," I choked. "I'm human! Ow!"

"What is Phantom, then? A figment of my imagination?" Sam demanded.

"I don't know! I have no—I don't know. I'm just – I'm just me," I protested. "M-maybe they're not the same ghost! Come on, a name like Phantom, there's got to be tons of ghosts that call themselves—ack!"

Sam had jerked my arm up higher across my back. "Shut up!" Her voice cracked.

I shut up, willing myself to perfect stillness no matter how much I wanted to try to squirm free.

Sam breathed raggedly over me, obviously fighting the urge to do something. Probably kill me on the spot. "Describe him," she ordered.

Being in a position like the one I was in wasn't conducive to lying, but I tried to make one up anyway. I flashed to the mental image of my future self – that would do, even though it was all backwards. "F-flaming blue hair, blue skin, pretty bulky," I stammered. "Black and white suit …"

The grip on my arm lessened slightly. I tensed, unsure what that meant.

"… You're telling the truth," she said, somewhere between a statement and a question.

I nodded hard where my cheek was pressed against the ledge.

She released me. I slumped heavily with a gasp of relief, slowly drawing my arm back in front of me with great care. It had gone numb.

Sam was silent as she took a seat next to where I was kneeling and clutching my arm, and she didn't look at me. I slowly got back to my feet and sat next to her, unsure what to say.

"I'm sorry," Sam said softly.

I hadn't really expected the apology. I blinked at her, then rubbed the back of my neck with my good arm. "It's okay. I understand." I didn't really, but it seemed like the right thing to say.

"It's just that … Phantom was …" she trailed off.

I was evil. It was the only conclusion I could draw. Then the tense of her incomplete sentence hit me like a wave. "'Was'?" I echoed.

"No one has seen him for a while now. I figured something had scared him off, or Walker … somebody." Sam shrugged, still not looking at me. "Good riddance," she added, her tone turning vicious.

I winced. "I was really that bad?" I asked softly.

Sam shook her head slightly. I didn't know how to interpret that one, but I knew one thing: I was scared of dying. Really scared. Everywhere I turned full ghost, I was evil or malevolent – from the time my ghost ripped Plasmius out of Vlad to my evil future ten years off. Why? Why did I always turn out bad? It's a question that still haunts me.

"Go on," Sam urged after a long beat.

I licked my lips and nodded. "Er … okay, um …"

"Pariah Dark," Sam reminded me, a thin smile flitting across her features.

Right. "Well, in my world, things got really confusing. Um, the Wisconsin Ghost had stolen the Ring of Rage from Pariah's Keep, I think? Somehow the Ring ended up with V—Keira. I think the Wisconsin Ghost gave it to her. Ph-Phantom—" I stumbled over the name, barely refraining from saying 'I'—"ended up teaming up with the Wisconsin Ghost against Pariah Dark.

"My parents, though, they were building this Ecto-Skeleton or something like that. It was like this big suit that magnified the wearer's strength a hundred times over, but the interface was glitchy. If you used it too long, it could kill you," I explained.

Sam nodded, glancing at me again. Her eyes were narrowed thoughtfully.

"So my parents were going to use it, then J-Ferina was, then Keira was … er … they kept knocking each other out to stop each other from using it, so Phantom just stole it." I smiled slightly at the memory. Valerie had been furious, but it had been pretty funny to watch everyone knocking each other out. "He took the suit and used it against the Ghost King. But even he alone in the suit wasn't powerful enough, so all the other ghosts – Skulker, Desiree, Ember, everyone – came and helped out too. Even the Wisconsin Ghost came." I hesitated. "I think the Wisconsin Ghost had bribed the Fright Knight to help also. It was still a near thing."

"An Ecto-Skeleton, huh?" Sam said. "That could be useful." She stood up. "I think I'll tell Tray and Ferina about that."

"It didn't work right, though," I reminded her. I'd nearly died in the thing.

"I have the utmost faith in Tray." Sam smiled, and for a moment she almost looked like the Sam I'd always known. "He's my best friend."

My heart did something funny upon hearing that, but I think it was related to relief. Sam was such a cold _soldier_ here; I'd doubted she considered anyone her friend. I was glad to think that Sam and Tucker were friends.

"Storytime's over for now," Sam continued. "I'm going out to do a run for – ugh, Star and Paulina," she sighed. "They were spotted near your old home."

I stood up as well. "Do you mean they're still programmed or something?"

"Yeah," Sam nodded. "I'm going to go free them." She gave me an evaluating look, and I instinctively straightened in response. "I wanted to know if you'd come."

After being easily trumped, twice, by Sam? I was by no means athletic, so I had to guess my qualifier was being able to fire an ecto-gun. "Why me?" I couldn't help asking.

"Because your parents fight ghosts. You've got to know something about it," Sam grinned. "Tray just finished fixing my jet sled. Keira's running backup again – she used to be my number two on everything, but she broke her leg in three places o—"

"What?" I cried, wincing at the mental image. I'd seen Valerie beaten and smashed up before, and it always broke my heart; even though she'd rejected me and was trying to kill my alter ego, I still had a crush on her (which was really complicated by the fact that I was insanely jealous every time Sam mentioned other guys in a romantic fashion). "And she's still--?"

"She was down for over a month," Sam shot back, exasperated. "If she didn't get to help with something, she was going to kill someone."

That I could see. "Right …"

"Anyway, she's backup. You're my number two, so let's go get ready."

I hadn't agreed yet, but Sam obviously expected me to say 'yes' no matter what I really wanted. And honestly, I was itching to go do something anyway. For all I knew, I could actually help: as long as Sam didn't actually _see_ my ghost sense go off, I could probably warn her of any incoming ghosts. I followed Sam.

I was pretty happy when we went down to pipes to the left, because when we came around the corner there was a ladder. "Up this way," Sam instructed, starting up the ladder, and I followed her. Wow, her butt was kind of cute in that—

I stopped thinking. How could I think about something like that then? Ask my hormones.

At the top of the ladder was a lab. It reminded me sharply of our own basement. Two easily identifiable people in overalls and metalworking masks were happily building something-or-other, when Sam interrupted them. "Hey, Tray, Ferina – we need some gear."

Tucker was the first to look up. He removed his mask, grinning. "Danny's coming with you?"

"Yeah," Sam nodded. "Gear him up."

Jazz was removing her mask now. "Geez, you can't send him out in those clothes," she protested, reaching out and grabbing my shirt. "He's practically got a target painted right here!"

I looked down at my shirt. "What's wrong with it?"

"Dude, the red oval right over your chest has got to go," Tucker agreed. "We've got some black stuff, much better for this kind of thing."

I'd never thought of my shirt as a liability before. Sam nodded, though. "Good thinking."

"That's what they pay me the big bucks for," Tucker agreed. "_I'll_ go find him some clothes. Kobal'll have you suited up in spandex," he laughed, which earned him a glare from Sam that I knew extremely well. "Come on."

He led the way across the lab, while Sam and Jazz discussed the improvements on Sam's jet sled. "How'd you get a place like this?" I asked.

"It was a lot of hard work," Tucker admitted. "Everything we have runs on generators, of course, but we managed to clear out this basement of ghosts about six months ago. Then Sergei sent us a whole bunch of equipment; we just spread the ghost-human shield a little thinner to cover this place, and set up shop." He threw open a door to reveal what amounted to a large pile of worn clothes. "Stolen," he explained. "Ghosts don't need this stuff, but we do. We looted some stores when it all went to hell, and eventually it all ended up here. Sorry if it's not in style."

"Since when did I care about that?" I asked, cracking a grin.

"Good point," Tucker smirked. "Hmm, let's see … hey, you could go Neo on us. Black trenchcoat." He thrust it at me, and I held it up.

"Too long," I evaluated.

"Then forget that. You don't want to be tripping over anything out there. Okay, here's a black T-shirt, dark gray sweatshirt … You want some new pants?"

Seeing as my pants stunk of dry sewage, I nodded. "Heck yes."

"Then here you go." Tucker piled the clothes into my arms. "The point is, stay warm and stay mobile, and stay invisible."

_Oh, if only I could, _I thought.

"It's daytime out, but black and blue are the colors the eye has the hardest time seeing. If you're here long, you might be doing this a lot, and most of the runs are at night, so …"

I nodded my understanding. After glancing back to make sure the girls were out of sight, I pulled off my shirt. Ugh, I did reek! "How long has it been since I got here, anyway?"

"I guess about ten, twelve hours," Tucker shrugged. "Don't have much use for watches."

"Do I reek?" I asked, my voice muffled by the sweatshirt I was pulling over my head.

"You can take a shower when you get back, dude," Tucker laughed at me. "It's cold water, but at least it's something."

"Then I do reek." I reached for the T-shirt, which had the words 'Rock On!' and a hand making the universal 'rock out' symbol on it. "What the heck?"

"Wear it inside out," Tucker advised.

It didn't take long for me to dress. When we came back out, Jazz thrust two belts into my hands, laden with two ecto-guns and something like half a million refills. "Put those on and don't lose them!" Jazz warned. "It's hard enough dealing with what Kobal loses."

"Hey!" Sam said, apparently offended. She was looking her jet sled – which was also identical to the one Valerie had back at home—over.

I snickered to myself and locked the belts in place. "You don't happen to have a Fenton Jack'o'Ninetails around, do you?" I joked.

But Jazz brightened at that. "Yeah, we do. Did Dad design one of those where you come from?"

"Oh, he made a few dozen." I shrugged, but Jazz had this look of nostalgia that unnerved me. What could she be thinking of?

"Let me get you one," she said enthusiastically, practically flying to the work table she and Tucker had been at when we first came in.

Sam showed me how to shoot the ecto-guns I'd been given. It was almost identical to how my parents' guns fired and reloaded – no surprise, since Jazz had designed them. "We're meeting Keira at the entrance."

"More sewage?" I asked, trying not to mourn my fresh pair of pants.

"More sewage," Sam confirmed, seeming unbothered.

Belatedly I remembered Sam's wound. "Is your leg doing okay?"

"I've had way worse." Sam brushed off my inquiry. I let it drop.

Valerie met us at the entranceway (Kwan was the one guarding the path this time), and again I didn't see how the shield was deactivated and reactivated. Water was pouring in from the upper pipes: it was raining outside. We were going to be drenched.

The walk was silent for the longest time except for the water splashing against our legs and trickling into the pipes. Sam had the flashlight again, although with the dim light from above we didn't need it as badly. When the silence began to bother me, I spoke up. "Hey, Keira, did we … know each other?"

"You mean Danny in our world? Don't think so. You were kind of a nerd," Keira confessed.

Obviously this Val had never had her fall from grace. I tried not to bristle senselessly at the 'nerd' comment.

"Of course, all your parents' stuff has come in really handy." Keira shot me a sharp smile. "Gotta admit, I'm glad you're here."

And that made me warm inside. I smiled back.

"This way." Sam interrupted our moment by jerking the flashlight in the direction we needed to go.

When we reached the pipe we'd started at the night before, Sam went up the ladder first. "We need about an hour," she told Valerie. "Meet you here."

"Right. Don't be late this time."

Sam looked down at me. "Are you ready for this?"

I nodded, trying not to be nervous. "Should I have a fake name for this?" I asked.

"Danny, you're dead," Sam reminded me. "Your name isn't any danger."

Right. Okay. I was starting to get a few butterflies in the pit of my stomach; I almost never fought ghosts as a human, after all. "Then let's go."

Sam pressed her hand against the underside of the manhole cover and grunted, obviously straining with effort, but she moved the manhole cover all by herself. I wondered if Sam's suit enhanced her strength at all.

"Come on. Hurry." Sam climbed up out of the manhole, and I followed her.

I poked my head out of the sewers and spotted Sam against the wall, her gun out. I heaved myself upwards and ran to join her, pulling out my own gun. My shoes were sopping wet; that would slow me down.

Again I had a lucky moment; my ghost sense went off while I stood next to Sam, and I shivered, covering my mouth, but she wasn't looking my way. The rain was only a drizzle at the moment, but my shoulders were already damp.

"This is a sting attack," Sam whispered, looking back at me as she pulled her visor over her face. "Take down any ghosts with Paulina and Star, and I'll grab them. Then we get them back here. Keira will take care of them while we run distraction.

"When we've lost the ghosts, we go back down. Got it?"

"Got it," I whispered.

"Then follow me." Sam ran around the corner.

Why wasn't she getting on her sled? I decided to just be grateful I wasn't along for a hair-raising ride and ran after her.

Three blocks ahead stood Paulina and Star. Well, they weren't just standing around, actually – they were carrying boxes into a building. I would have wondered what they were doing if I'd had time, but as it was, three ghosts were looking on – two that looked almost identical to Walker's goons back in my home dimension, and one ghost skeleton.

They looked up at the sound of our – okay, _my_ – pounding footsteps. "It's them!"

"Fire!" Sam shouted, leaping into the air. She snapped her knees together and the jet sled formed under her feet as she zoomed off ahead of me. I dropped to one knee and fired the way Dad had taught me, aiming along the sights.

I sent one ghost flying, and another spinning away as I dealt it a glancing blow. Paulina and Sam both dropped their boxes and screamed. Sam dropped down towards them, reaching out to grab them both.

And an ectoplasmic blast suddenly sent Sam flying, her jet sled careening across the street as she cried out.

"Sam!" I cried, forgetting the fake names for the moment. It would have been much smarter to hide, maybe, but I was thinking like Danny Phantom, not Danny Fenton. I sprinted across the street, but Sam was already righting herself.

"Idiot! Run, run run RUN!" Sam screamed at me, trying to steer her smoking sled.

My ghost sense went off again, and I hiccupped, whipping my head around on instinct, but things were happening too quickly. I was backhanded across the back of my head, and I stumbled forward and sideways, halfway spinning around and seeing stars.

I was also hallucinating. I had to be.

Because the ghost that was laughing at my drunken stumble was the Ghost King, and the Ghost King was Vlad Plasmius.

_Tbc_

_And another evil cliffhanger! Did Sam see Danny's ghost sense? What will Vlad do to them? TUNE IN NEXT TIME. XD_

_Thanks again to all my reviewers: YumeTakato, katiesparks, HiddenAuthor, Unrealistic, Anonymous Reader13, Amitra, and Sasia. You still rock out loud._

_Reviews are appreciated and adored._


	9. Million Dollar Ghost

**Chapter 9: The Million Dollar Ghost**

"Hahaha! Did you really think I hadn't known about your little operation?" Plasmius laughed.

I caught myself finally, clutching my temples. Plasmius floated in front of me, his arms folded and laughing in my face. He looked slightly different: the Ring of Rage and the Crown of Fire were new, for starters – but his hair was no longer styled in a crazy two-pronged way. Actually, the Crown of Fire was almost completely obscured by his flaming black hair. The edges of his cloak were cut a la Batman's cape, too.

I felt a pit of dread form in my stomach. With my powers I was barely a match for Plasmius – without them, I was practically guaranteed Fenton Toast. I froze for a moment, unable to rip my eyes away from my arch-nemesis.

Plasmius, however, wasn't looking at me. His gaze followed Sam's crazy path across the sky as she fought her jet sled for control. "You've been a fly in my soup for too long!"

Sam finally regained control of her sled. "You're not going to sit in your seat much longer," she snapped. "Treating humans like caged animals!"

"My dear child, what makes you think you can possibly stop me?" Plasmius said sweetly. "I've allowed you your conceit for some months, but no longer."

What did I do? My hands were shaking, but I stood my ground. This was Plasmius a thousand times worse, but powers or not, I had to do _something!_

Sam was silent, her gun trained on Plasmius, but she didn't fire. "What," she shouted, "makes _you_ think you can stop _me?_"

"Must I really answer that question?" Plasmius asked. I saw a smile curl on his lips. "Get her!"

My ghost sense went off, a shiver up my spine and a breath of mist curling from my mouth as twenty ghost goons came flying out of the ground, zooming after Sam. She let out a scream of frustration and wheeled her sled around. "Fine! Catch me if you can!" And she fled.

There had to be something I was supposed to do at this point, and it wasn't just standing here. My gun was charged. I could fire it, run, hide.

What the heck was an ecto-gun going to do to Vlad Plasmius, the Ghost King?

My thoughts felt jumbled. Mere moments had passed.

Plasmius was turning back towards me.

I panicked badly, but I guess I'm still my parent's kid, because I didn't run. I fired my gun at Plasmius' Crown of Fire. The Crown went flying from his head, and there was a scream of rage from Plasmius. "The Crown of Fire!"

Oops.

My actions hit me like a pile driver. It wasn't as if Plasmius wouldn't retrieve his Crown easily, but for the moment, he was distracted by its loss. I turned on my heel and fled in the other direction.

"Kill that boy!" Plasmius snarled behind me. "Bring me Samantha! I've had enough of this!"

Had this happened before? I didn't know. I ran as fast as my legs would carry me, adrenaline powering me forward. _Run! HIDE!_ My subconscious screamed at me, urging me to run through a wall, drop into the ground, do something – but of course, powerless, all I could do was turn down the first alleyway I saw, running in a zigzagging line as ghosts fired ectoblasts after me.

A brick wall was in front of me. I slammed into it hands-first, looking in both directions hopefully, but there was nowhere to go, no thin alleyways to slip into. A fire escape was six feet away, but ghosts can _fly_ – this wasn't some action movie where I could swing myself up it and disappear into a building.

The next ectoblast hit me in the back. "Augh!" I did a faceplant into the wall and my knees buckled; the energy reformed, cuffing my hands and feet. I rolled myself over, my back against the wall, looking up at the twenty ghosts that had cornered me.

I still had my ecto-gun in my hand. Lifting my cuffed hands, still terrified, I aimed and fired repeatedly, but there was easily too many of them. A ghost skeleton got close enough to knock the gun from my hands with a ghostly sword, slicing my hand open and almost taking my fingers with it. I jerked back, staring at my bleeding hand in confusion.

"We should try to get information out of it!" said one ghost, one of the ghosts that looked like Walker's goons.

"The King said to kill it," retorted another. "Cut off its head!"

I belatedly remembered the other gun in my holster. I scrabbled for it desperately, but my hands were slippery with blood.

"Kill it before it does more damage!"

The skeleton, mindless, lifted its sword over its head to cleave me in two.

I flinched back, squeezing my eyes shut, certain I was about to be killed – and fell through the wall at my back.

"Finally! I've been looking for you everywhere!" said a familiar voice in the darkness, but I was still shaking with adrenaline and relief as I realized I wasn't about to die. Somehow I had phased through the wall!

"Ghost child? Ghost child …?"

"M-My powers … they're coming back …" I stammered to myself.

"What are you talking about? _I _phased you back through that wall! Now come on – use your family's amazing technology to take us back home!"

I turned my head finally at that, towards the ghost floating next to me with his arms in the air in desperation.

I had been saved by Technus 2.0.

"Technus?" I asked in confusion. I'd honestly forgotten all about him.

"Yes! It is I, the great Technus 2.0!" Technus' eyebrow twitched. "And I know that it is not safe here!"

He grabbed my shirt from the back and yanked me up, flying away with me even as the ghost skeletons began to phase through the wall. I choked on my shirt, but I was still cuffed, and honestly I didn't care that I was being dragged around by my shirt by Technus. It was better than being cut in half!

We slapped through walls, and I used my good hand to let myself breathe, slipping my fingers between the collar of my shirt and my neck. Technus took a sharp turn, steered up twenty floors, and finally flung me away. I hit the wall pretty hard, but then my cuffs finally disappeared. "Ah, geez, finally," I breathed, nursing my bleeding hand.

Technus was back to his usual loud self. "I cannot stand this place any longer! Ghost child, how do we get home?"

I licked my lips, glancing up from my hand to see Technus looking pathetically worn. I sighed. "I wish I knew."

"Surely there is some technology that we can employ," the ghost suggested, sounding desperate.

"Not that I know of," I snapped. "We're stuck here. Get over it."

"But – the Ghost King rules here! Do you know what kind of hardships I have been forced to endure? I have been—"

I stopped listening as Technus listed the outrageous sins against his magnificent self. The edge of my shirt was luckily already torn, letting me get hold of a strip, which I ripped off. It was damp, but better than nothing; I wrapped it around my hand tightly. "Help me tie this," I interrupted.

Technus blinked, stopping mid-rant. "You have been injured?"

"Don't sound so surprised!" I shot back, disgusted. Technus himself had spectacularly taken the wind out of me in the past, after all. "Help me out!"

"No one can order me to do anything," Technus shot back.

I groaned. "_Please_ help me tie off this knot so I don't die of infection and become an even more powerful ghost that can kick your butt six ways since Tuesday?"

Technus grumbled, but he floated over and tied off the knot on the makeshift bandage. "We have to keep moving," he said after a moment. "There is no place safe from the Ghost King."

And no one safe, I thought, remembering Sam. "I can't hide yet. I've gotta help Sam," I protested.

"The girl doesn't matter." Technus sounded confused. "She may look like your girlfriend, but she's not the same person, is she?"

"Sam is NOT my girlfriend," I half-shouted, "but different dimension or not, she's still my friend! I've gotta help her!"

"She has the technology given to her by Plasmius," Technus pointed out. "Although not nearly as stylish or superior as the suit I gave the hunter back home, it is still impressive!"

"She's got the Ghost King on her tail."

"All the more reason to stay away!"

"Fine!" I threw up my hands. "Then drop me off back on the ground, would you? I'll find her myself!"

"I refuse to lose you again! You're my ticket home!" Technus snapped.

"Then I guess you're coming with me." I raised my chin. "Because I'm not going to help you find a way home until I've helped Sam out."

Technus gave me a dirty look, but he grabbed me around the waist, lifting me off the ground. "You win this round, ghost child," he informed me, "but you haven't won the war!"

&

He took me up and out of the building, and we floated around for a while, hiding at any sign of Vlad's minions (which meant we were hiding a lot), but there was no sign of Sam or Plasmius, for that matter. I wondered if thinking of Plasmius as 'Vlad' was the right thing to do: were they the same person here? It was impossible to know. I sighed.

"All right," I groaned. "It looks like she's gone." She'd probably escaped on her own after all, and returned to their hideout – leaving me behind, which made me a bit bitter. But then again … this was a _war_, and Sam was a soldier. She probably considered my disappearance an unavoidable loss.

"Finally! You're getting heavy, ghost child. Have you gained weight?"

Actually, I had lost weight over the year since I'd become half-ghost, but there was no reason to share that with Technus. "Oh, you're full of it," I rolled my eyes. "I don't weigh anything as long as you're holding me." Which was true: ghosts aren't affected by gravity, nor is anything they hold.

Technus floated through a wall and let me down gently, which I appreciated more than I wanted to say. My legs were sore from running and I was pretty bruised up. Furthermore, there would be no fast healing this time. Without my ghost powers, I would heal at a normal rate. "Now what?" Technus asked.

I shrugged half-heartedly. "I dunno." The room we were in had some old blankets laying around, abandoned and moth-eaten. I lifted one, shaking it out. Suddenly I was very tired. "I think I need a nap."

"You're going to sleep?" Technus said incredulously.

"Look, you tell me if you get any good ideas," I hissed, jabbing a finger at Technus. "But I'm still half-human and I still need sleep, okay?"

Technus mumbled something I didn't catch, but apparently he didn't have any grand plans because he wasn't shouting them out. I laid out a blanket on the dusty floor and grabbed another one, laying that one out too before crawling between them. "Keep watch. I mean, _please_ keep watch so your 'ticket back home' doesn't get killed in his sleep," I amended.

"Fine. Don't expect this to continue when we return, ghost child! For then, I will destroy you and proceed to take over the world!" Technus declared. Then he blushed in that odd way only ghosts can, his cheeks glowing green. "I'm doing it again, aren't I?"

I half-laughed, remarkably exhausted. "Yeah." I shut my eyes. "But thanks for the truce, in the meantime."

"It is of mutual benefit, ghost child," Technus answered, and that was the last thing I heard before I passed out.

&

I don't know how much sleep I'd gotten when I had one of those really frightening dreams that you're falling and you can't stop yourself – you know, the ones that make you suddenly sit up in bed, gasping?

Well, I woke up suddenly, and I _was_ falling.

"Aaah!" I screamed, and then I hit the floor, hard on my tailbone. "Ow!" I winced, physically shaking from the scare-induced adrenaline, and rubbed my tailbone, looking around.

Where was I? This wasn't the room I'd fallen asleep in. Standing up, I rubbed my head, feeling stiff and sore. "What the heck …?"

That was when Technus swooped down at me from the ceiling. "What happened?" he demanded.

"Shouldn't I be asking you that?" I growled, still rubbing my butt and deducing what had happened. I must have fallen through the floor – but I couldn't do that right now. I didn't have my powers. "That hurt, you moron! What'd you phase me through the floor for?"

"I did nothing!" Technus defended himself.

"Yes, you did!" I snapped. "I—"

"What are _you_ doing?" Technus suddenly demanded, slowly looming higher and higher over me.

Mightily pissed now, I threw up my hands. "I'm not doing ANY—Aaack!"

I was slowly falling through the floor.

"Help me up!" I demanded, slamming my hands down on the wood to keep myself from falling further. Technus, looking confused but also a little smug, grabbed me by the shirt again and hauled me back up.

The familiar feeling of becoming tangible passed through me, and I put my feet on the floor. "Oh man … thanks …"

My powers were on the way back, then, after all. The experience had been eerily like when I first got my powers, though … accidentally falling down stairs because I would put down a foot and it would go right through the step, falling through my bed to land on the family room floor … "That hasn't happened in a while."

"Perhaps you should work on your control," Technus suggested smugly.

I glared at him. "Oh, good one. Have you ever thought about tutoring?" Now that I was awake, I tried to think. If my powers were coming back, could I 'go ghost' again? "Going ghost," I muttered, giving it an earnest attempt.

Nothing happened.

I sighed, running a hand through my hair. When I had first gotten my powers, invisibility and intangibility had been all I could access. I'd been so freaked out by waking up with white hair and green eyes that I was nothing but relieved the first time I transformed back into my human self; it didn't cross my mind for almost two weeks to try to turn back into a ghost, and when I had finally done so, 'flying' started out with me leaping inhuman distances accidentally. It's a mental thing, you see: if you still think gravity is going to get you, it does, when you're a ghost. That's why I fall when I'm punched senseless.

In any case, I decided to try for invisibility next. I lifted my bandaged hand and glared at it. _Turn invisible. Come on, you were doing this all the time when I didn't want it the first time around!_ But nothing happened again, and I groaned internally. Back to square one it was, then: keeping control of my intangibility.

"What are you doing?" Technus asked again.

"Hang on. I'm thinking," I protested, turning my mind to more immediate matters.

I had a couple of options: the first was to try to find Sam again. Theoretically, if I wandered around long enough in the sewers, I would find their human-ghost shield thing and I could find the door, but while Amity Park isn't huge, it's still far too large to easily find one person – even if that person is wearing a bright red jumpsuit. The second was to wait for them to find me – presuming they were even looking for me. Heck, for all I knew they were packing up and fleeing, seeing as me with one of those chips in my brain might be a huge liability. The third and final option was to forget about this world as a lost cause and dedicate myself to trying to get home.

I didn't like any of those options, honestly, but for better or for worse, I was saved from having to deal with it at all. I looked up at a noise in the eerie silence.

"Do you hear a jet?" I asked Technus.

"I—gaah!"

Technus was cut off by one of the walls of our makeshift hideout imploding. I put up my arms to protect myself from flying debris automatically, but like flexing a well-used muscle, my intangibility kicked in and nothing at all hit me. Technus yelled, trying to flee. "Attack!"

"Ghost!" shouted the intruder, firing at Technus.

The Techno-geek of a ghost was trapped in an ecto-net and sent tumbling end over end. "Ow! Not again!"

I, on the other hand, gasped with relief, because the girl riding the jet sled that had just destroyed the wall was none other than Valerie Gray. "Oh, thank you!" I cheered.

But she whirled to train her gun on me. "You're not fooling me," she snapped. I startled backwards, confused. "My ghost detector says there's _two_ ghosts in here – and you're one of them."

_Tbc_

_Sorry about the wait for this chapter. Unfortunately for me, real life must come before fan-fiction: I'll still be working on this as often as possible. Also, when I started this chapter, I realized I had to scrap everything that I'd written so far because it just didn't work. Xx I have the 'deleted scene' saved, however, so when I'm able to, I'll post the scene in its own special interlude chapter._

_Thanks yet again to all my lovely reviewers: Din Kelion, DP Fan, YumeTakato, Katiesparks, Shimegami-chan, Horselvr4evr123, Unrealistic, Sasia, Amitra, and Sword on Fire. A particularly big thanks to Hidden Author and Bluemoonalto for your thought-provoking reviews. You guys always make me want to re-write my outlines and include your ideas in my story! XD_

_Reviews are adored and appreciated._


	10. Flirting With Disaster

**Chapter 10: Flirting With Disaster**

My parents worked nonstop on the Fenton Portal into the wee hours of the morning, ignoring me for the most part – but not before they left me a laundry list of rules, foremost of which was 'Don't touch anything!' Fortunately, they decided that the person to keep an eye on my dangerous ghostly self was Jazz.

Of course the cuffs prevented me from doing much of anything. Besides linking my hands together, they prevented me from using my powers. On top of that, the ghost shield kept me from leaving the house – which was fine, really, since I wasn't planning on going anywhere, but it still chafed. Where was I going to run to with ghost cuffs on? I mean, really?

It comforted me only slightly that if things got really bad, I could always escape into the Ghost Zone. It would be a bad idea, but it _was_ possible.

Tucker and Sam stayed over until nearly midnight, and we played a lot of video games. Jazz carried an ecto-gun with her for appearances. "As long as it's not the Fenton Thermos, right, Danny?" Tucker joked.

I laughed weakly, but not being able to do anything about anything was driving me up a wall.

Jazz pulled me aside for a brief conversation while Sam and Tuck took their turn at Blood! Spatter! Gore, our game of choice. "What is it, Jazz?"

"Remember how I said you probably have a psychic connection with Danny?" Jazz asked.

She'd said it in passing, but I remembered. "Yeah?"

"Good. See, based on what Mom and Dad described, I think you're not exactly Danny Phantom … you're more like part of Danny's conciousness, a throwoff manifestation. That's not as terrible as it sounds – it means that you're directly linked to Danny, like if you were having an out-of-body experience."

"That's one way to put it," I cracked.

Jazz smirked. "Look, I don't know how it works exactly, but concentrate. Can you sense Danny?"

I rolled my eyes. "Jazz, this isn't some psycho telepathy show."

"I _know_, Danny," Jazz sighed, exasperated. "Just try, okay?"

I closed my eyes to humor her, but my thoughts wandered, and I recalled the feeling I'd had when Danny and had first been separated: I had somehow just _known_ that my human half was still alive. That feeling hadn't really gone away. "I can't sense him or whatever, but I know he's alive," I said simply, opening my eyes. "I just … know."

Jazz clapped her hands together excitedly. "Yes, exactly! Exactly what I'm talking about! Do you think you'll know when you're closer or further from him?"

I shrugged. "I dunno, but I guess I'll try," I sighed.

"That's exactly what I hope you'll do," Jazz answered, and then it was my turn to play again.

When Sam and Tucker left, Mom and Dad were still working, and Jazz had fallen asleep on the couch. I sighed and flipped on the TV. "Nothing … Nothing … argh! Bored now!"

Jazz rolled over in her sleep, and I looked down at her. She'd probably saved my … er, life. I smiled slightly. "Thanks, Jazz," I murmured.

"Phantom?"

I looked up, startling back from my sister at the sight of my mom flipping on the living room lights. I suddenly realized what this probably looked like to Mom – me about to hurt my sleeping sister. "I wasn't doing anything," I said defensively before Mom could speak, putting up my hands in surrender.

Mom glanced at the TV, and I followed her every movement warily, sidling away from the couch. But she hadn't pulled out an ecto-gun yet: good sign, right?

"Cartoons?" she asked.

I cleared my throat. "Um, I guess your daughter watches them?"

"Jazz never watches cartoons," Mom answered, which of course I already knew. "Were you …?"

"I got bored," I said warily. What was she doing?

Mom approached the couch (I circled away until my back hit the wall) and sat down near Jazz's feet. "Sit down," she said gently – and when I say gently, I mean she wasn't snapping at me like a wolf. I slid down the wall to sit with my thighs drawn up to my chest, my cuffed hands encircling my knees.

Mom regarded me with open confusion for a moment. "Are you sure you don't want to sit on the loveseat?"

I glanced at said chair, still a good distance from my mom. "I never liked that name for it," I admitted aloud, but didn't move. Why was Mom offering me upholstery seating?

I was startled when Mom smiled slightly. "I'm just taking a short break from the Portal," she explained. "Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

My eyebrows shot up. "Um, that depends," I ventured. "Are you going to shoot me if you don't like the answers?"

Mom shook her head. "No, Phantom." She hesitated for a moment. "I … saw something you probably never intended me to see."

I flinched. Had she come up to see Sam and Tucker playing video games with me like we were old friends? Had she seen Jazz joking with me? What had I missed? "Er, what are you talking about?"

Mom was pulling the afghan off the back of the couch and covering Jazz with it. "I came downstairs and saw you juggling."

What was she talking about? It took me a moment to remember the pastime I'd used to distract me from impending doom. "Oh, that … it's just a hobby," I said lamely.

"I see," Mom said. "… may I ask how long it's been since you died?" She fussed with the afghan, not looking at me.

Oh, crud – it was a question I'd never really anticipated anyone asking me, and I didn't want to say 'one year ago' because the coincidence was just too much, probably. "Oh, um, well … I don't really remember," I lied. "I haven't seen my own grave"—that much was true—"but I guess it's been a couple of years?"

"You're very strong for a new ghost," Mom said.

I shrugged. "If you say so. You're the ghost experts."

"You register as a 7.4 on the Theoretical Ectoplasmic Scale."

I smiled wryly. "I've heard that." Namely from the Guys in White.

Mom was silent for a moment. "… You also show a fair amount of human traits – affection, and remorse."

Now we were wandering into slightly dangerous territory, but it didn't really register with me. I felt a flare of annoyance. "Of course I do," I said, trying to not be too snappish. "What do you think ghosts do in their free time? It's not like they wander around the Ghost Zone fighting each other all the time! Geez, one time I caught Technus taking a shower!" I took a deep breath to relax myself. "Ghosts were humans once, too."

"I know. But you don't belong here any more," Mom pointed out.

I was silent. I _did_ belong here, but that was special circumstances for obvious reasons, and for the most part I agreed with my mom. It certainly was no picnic for me when ghosts decided the human world was a good place to visit. "If you say so," I finally mumbled.

Mom looked satisfied, as if she'd won some argument I hadn't known we were having. "Phantom … thank you for helping us find our son. We should have gone to bed hours ago, but …" she trailed off.

"You couldn't sleep," I finished for her. "Yeah, I know. And you're welcome. I … I need Danny here too." Perhaps I'd said too much, I realized, so I backtracked. "I mean, he's your kid, and I don't want to hurt people no matter what you think, and you're not bad people, even if you are trying to tear me apart molecule by molecule … speaking of which, can we please reconsider the whole dissecting me after Danny's back home thing?" Not that it was likely to be a problem, if – when – I found my human half, but it couldn't hurt to ask, right?

Mom gave me a lingering sharp look. "I'll consider it," she said. "On one condition: You must never leave the Ghost Zone again."

I gaped at her. "I can't do that," I protested. "I have to protect Amity Park!"

"The way you protected it when you kidnapped the mayor?" Mom shot back.

"I – that's--! I was framed!" My voice cracked a little. "Why the heck would I want to kidnap the mayor?"

"Why not explain it to me," Mom suggested.

"I _can't_ explain it because I _didn't_ do it!" I shot back, my voice rising in volume.

Jazz mumbled something in her sleep, and began to blink awake. "… Danny …?"

In her half-awake state, Jazz wasn't aware Mom was in the room. "Phantom," I corrected hastily.

"Jazz, sweetie, go to bed," Mom said gently, rubbing Jazz's shoulder.

"Mom?" Jazz's eyes opened fully, and then she glanced back and forth between me and her. "Oh! U-uh, well, shouldn't Phantom get some sleep too? He's got to be tired!"

She was trying to save me from this conversation with our mom, and I decided I was too wounded to be anything but grateful. "Ghosts don't really sleep," I said wearily, "But resting would be nice."

Mom gave me a skeptical look and smiled at Jazz. "Don't worry about the ghost, honey, I'll take care of him."

"Well, treat him nicely, Mom, he's treated everyone else nicely," Jazz answered, standing up and casting me a slightly worried look as she passed by on her way up the stairs.

I shot her a small smile to reassure her. Mom didn't notice, rearranging the afghan. "… well, then, Phantom, would you like to just sleep here on the couch?"

My room and my comfortable bed were right upstairs, but a million miles out of reach. I nodded. "Yeah. Thanks." I stood at the same time as Mom, and I averted my eyes. "As for your offer, Mo-Maddie … I really can't. I'll just risk dissection, I guess."

Mom just watched me as I crossed the room and flopped onto the couch, but all I could think was _if I don't find my human half, I'm toast._

&

"And here it is! The Fenton Interdimensional Portal!"

"Wow, that's a remarkably straightforward name," I remarked dryly as my father unveiled their newest invention the next day.

"Of course it is! We don't have to fool ghosts with this one," Dad explained eagerly.

I could think of a lot of things ghosts could do with potential interdimensional mischief-making, but I decided to just hold my tongue.

The Interdimensional Portal was small and round, raised on a platform in the middle of the lab so the Ghost Portal stood ominously silent behind it. A generator sat on the floor underneath it. I wanted to know how it worked, but I was smart enough to not ask. I'd be rewarded with the longest snooze-fest in history, no doubt.

"We haven't activated it yet, but our calculations are perfect," Mom added. "It should work just fine."

"Stand back, everyone!" My dad plugged a couple of electrical outlets, flipped on the generator, and produced a remote control remarkably like the one that had controlled my cage. I cringed back automatically. "Banzai!"

Jazz was right behind me for the moment; I pushed her back gently with my shoulder, out of the line of fire in case the Portal exploded outwards the way my parents' first Ghost Portal had exploded on Vlad. Fortunately, the machine merely sparked a few times, seemed to sputter, and then hummed to life like some kind of bizarre computer screen, a thin layer of what looked like gray smoke obscuring the round portal's entrance.

"It works!" Jazz exclaimed in surprise.

"It works!" Mom and Dad shouted together.

"And I didn't have to do it myself this time," I muttered to Jazz, making her smile.

Mom and Dad hugged each other, then smooched, and I made an 'ew, gross!' face and looked away. Jazz rolled her eyes at me. "Geez, Danny, they're in love."

"Doesn't mean I have to want to see that!"

"We'll get back our son yet," Mom said confidently as they drew apart again. "All right, then, back to business!" She snatched the remote from Dad's hands and approached me.

"This controls which dimension the Portal connects to," she explained, holding out the remote. I glanced at it peripherally, but I doubted I'd be making much personal use of it.

"Okay."

"We had to make the Portal this size to keep it stable," Mom explained. "Most of the closest parallel dimensions are going to be some sort of variations on prior events; we think Danny most likely ended up in one of those. Now … when you travel through the Portal, you'll need this." She snapped a metal bracelet around my forearm, and it blinked warningly. I raised an eyebrow at it.

"That's our homing device! When you've been in a dimension for one hour, we'll pull you back with that device!" Dad boomed.

"Danny can't have gotten far in one day," Mom said, "And hopefully, he's been smart and stayed near where he entered the dimension."

I hoped so, too – or at least that Jazz's psychic connection thing worked. "What if it's the right dimension but you pull me back before I find him?" I asked.

"Then you can tell us and we'll send you back!" Mom answered. She looked back at the Portal, then at Dad. "All right. Jack, are you ready?"

There was the whine of an ecto-rifle being readied by my father. "Ready, Maddie!" He swung the rifle towards me.

Mom pinned me with her gaze. "I'm going to remove the Fenton Specter Disrupters now," she informed me, holding up the key for the cuffs. "Don't—"

"Try anything funny, yeah, yeah, I get it," I interrupted with a sigh. "Let's just do this."

Mom exchanged a look with Dad, who shrugged eloquently. "All right." She unlocked the ghost cuffs.

I stood as still as possible, rubbing my wrists instinctively, then spreading my arms in either direction non-threateningly. Mom and Dad didn't move, ready for me to go berserk and try to kill them or something.

I rolled my eyes, unable to help it, and looked at the Portal. "Well … here goes nothing," I said – and I let my form dissolve, spreading like a directional mist into the Portal.

There was a pulling sensation, and then that of an uncontrollable fall. I would have shouted, but I couldn't change my form back to a solid, human one until the feeling suddenly stopped and I landed hard on my butt in the Fenton lab.

Or … what had been the Fenton lab in my dimension, anyway.

This lab had a huge clown face where the Ghost Portal once stood, and it was silent and dark. I made a face, standing up and dusting my suit off. What had happened here …?

I turned intangible and flew up out of the lab; I had an impression of a silent and unused kitchen before I rose up and into the sky.

The sky was purple. Ghostly faces and clowns and carnival rides decorated every building.

I had the feeling I knew exactly what sort of dimension I was in.

"Freakshow," I growled under my breath. _He must still have the Reality Gauntlet in this reality! Which means …_

One of two things. Either I had been permanently turned into Jello in this universe and was a stain on the ground at a demented carnival, or Freakshow had let me live to suffer a world where my parents, my sister, my friends, and their parents had all died.

Technically, it wasn't my problem, but it still felt personal. I wanted to find Freakshow and tear him limb from limb, but I took a deep breath instead and closed my eyes. "All right," I said aloud. "Let's find out if Jazz's theory is right."

I thought long and hard about my human half, but there was nothing – nothing except the sensation that he was still out there, somewhere. I opened my eyes again and scowled. "I guess we're doing this the hard way."

Unfortunately, I didn't even get a chance to go looking. I started to swoop down to search the streets of Amity Park when I pulled up short at the sight of a huge, ugly white face with deep-set red eyes that was at least three times as big as my whole body, attached to a ten-story-tall body attached to a hand wearing a glowing gold gauntlet.

"What are you doing away from your booth?" Freakshow demanded of me. "I thought I'd finally broken your spirit!"

The Gauntleted hand came flying up at me.

I did the sensible thing and fled, zigzagging across the sky.

I was too slow or too late or too something, though, because the Form beam that hit me in the back turned me into stone. I began to fall, conscious but unable to scream, kick, or avert disaster, and hit the pavement at terminal velocity.

I broke to pieces.

_Tbc_

_if you'd like a bit of spoiler, you can follow this link to an illustration concept page for the realities that poor Phantom will be traveling to (minus spaces): www. deviantart. com/ deviation/ 41200626/_

_Thank you again to all my reviewers: Xelena, DP Fan, Amitra, Sasia, Sword on Fire, Pieling, YumeTakato, Shimegami-chan, AnonymousReader13, and Unrealistic. You all rock my socks. D_

_Reviews are appreciated and adored._


	11. Infinite Realms I

**Chapter 11: Infinite Realms I**

There was no sensation of pain – no sensation of anything. I lay there shattered on the pavement, unable to do anything but stare at the sky my face was turned towards. Insanely I wondered what would happen if my parents called me back right now: would just the part of me wearing the bracelet return home? Or would the bracelet, shattered, fail to work as well?

There was obnoxious laughter somewhere behind me. "Hah-HAH! Now _that's_ entertainment!" Then there were other voices, laughing uproariously.

"Enough of that," Freakshow snapped. I had the brief impression of a yellow glow, and I felt as if someone had taken a needle to my body and was slowly sewing me back together. I cried out as the stone faded from my body, and squeezed my eyes shut as my broken body was re-knit, rolling onto my back.

Freakshow's hand came down from the sky and hooked into my hazmat suit, tearing it across the chest as he lifted me back towards him. I was shaking; my hands clutched Freakshow's finger for support. "Now get back to your job!" He raised his other hand and flicked me away.

I'd never thought a fingernail to the face could be so painful. I caught myself midair this time, though. _Be respectful. If Danny's in this reality, he's probably gotten the same treatment – so he's probably wherever my 'job' is._ Gritting my teeth in effort, I turned slowly back towards Freakshow. "Er … sir," I ventured.

"What now?" Freakshow snapped, turning back to look at me.

"Maybe being turned into stone destroyed my memory. Uh, what _is_ my job?"

"What?" Freakshow raised the Gauntlet. "Are you trying to be smart with me?"

I cringed for real. "No! No, o-of course not!"

"Then GET BACK TO WORK!" The force of his voice sent me tumbling backwards, and Freakshow stalked off, his footsteps shaking the ground.

I was left wondering what the heck my job was again. Quietly, I slipped to the ground and floated down the streets, searching.

There didn't seem to be any real jobs any more. There was plenty of activity, but everyone's faces were decorated with clown makeup so much as to be unrecognizable. Everyone was laughing, but I wondered if it was forced happiness created by Freakshow's maniacal desire for power.

I guess I searched for about 40 minutes, sickened further by everything I saw – twisted carnival-esque booths run by dejected ghosts I didn't recognize, grotesque faces, demented music at every street corner – and still there was no sign of my human half. I was beginning to doubt this place possessed my other half when a hand flew out and grabbed my throat, pulling me back into a narrow space between carnival rides. I choked.

"Who are you, and how did you steal my face?" demanded a very familiar voice in my ear, hot breath on my cheek. My hazmat suit was dampened by a wet shirt against my back.

It was me! I tried to see, but he was holding me tightly – I could only get a glimpse of black hair. My human self, then! "It's me!" I protested. "I'm here to rescue you! Mom and Dad—"

"They're _dead_," snarled my human half.

I tried to phase free, but I couldn't, and I realized suddenly that this Danny wasn't _my_ human half. My human half would be unable to hold me down, being fully human – this Danny had a ghost quotient, or I would be capable of phasing free.

I quieted, stilling fully in his arms. "All right," I murmured. "I'm sorry. I'm you from another dimension," I explained. "It's … a little complicated."

Danny was silent for a long moment. "Another dimension?" he asked.

"Yeah. I, er, kind of split myself in two and left one half of me in another dimension. I'm trying to find my human half. Can you, uh, let go of my throat?"

Danny seemed to contemplate this request before loosening his grip. I floated free, massaging my neck. "Sorry," he said as I turned to face him, not sounding particularly sorry at all.

I – uh, Danny – looked horrible. There were dark circles under his eyes and he was deathly pale; his clothes had obviously seen better days. He was sopping wet.

I let out a long, slow, and completely unnecessary breath. "What's going on here?"

"Isn't it obvious?" Danny hissed. "Freakshow got the Reality Gauntlet, and …" he raised his hands helplessly, staring at them, before clenching them into fists. "He …" He fell silent. Before I could answer, though, he broke in, "I haven't figured out how to get the Gauntlet from him yet, but I will. I'll set this right," Danny snarled.

I bit my lip briefly. In my dimension, I had won this fight before such a horrible reality could really take hold, but here, obviously, I had failed.

There was nothing I could do, and I didn't have much time left before I would be brought back home. Still, there was at least one thing I could do. "What's Freakshow put you up to?" I asked.

Danny looked away from me. "A dunking booth, for now. I'm the one getting dunked, in case you haven't guessed," he added sharply. "… he just likes making a fool out of me."

I wished I knew what words to say that would help, but I'd never really suffered the loss this Danny had. Isn't it weird, how I didn't even know what to say to myself? There was only one thing I knew to offer: a solution. "The same thing happened in my reality," I started hastily. "But I stopped Freakshow. He likes making a fool out of you, huh? Try turning the tables." I couldn't help the slight viciousness in my voice.

I had Danny's attention. He looked up at me intently.

"Jazz told me he has Ghost Envy. You have a Fenton Thermos still?"

Danny shrugged slightly. "It's useless, but yeah. I mean, it still works, but … Freakshow controls all the ghosts here. We all run booths."

I had noticed, but it made me cringe when I realized this Danny associated himself more with the ghosts than with his human side, even though he was currently in human form. "Whatever, just use it. Trust me, when he sees how great you are since you're a ghost, he'll try to one-up you and turn into a ghost himself. Then you can suck him up into the Thermos."

Danny gave me a skeptical look, and I threw up my hands. "It worked for me, okay?"

"… Jazz said Freakshow has Ghost Envy?" Danny asked, his voice slightly pained.

I looked away. "Yeah. Hey, uh, sorry to change the subject, but I don't have much time. Have you seen another human version of me running around? I figured Freakshow would think it was you and would chuck him in your general direction," I explained.

Danny shook his head. "No." He suddenly ducked back, motioning me to join him, and we watched as Lydia floated by, surveying the streets with a queenly air. "… You're sure your plan will work?" he asked.

I nodded. "Positive." I wasn't too surprised that my human half wasn't here, but at least I'd accomplished something, right?

"Good," Danny murmured. "Because if it doesn't, he'll …" Danny trailed off. "Never mind." He glanced over at me. "Everything's okay in your dimension?"

_Great thing about meeting other selves: we all believe in the same things. Like parallel dimensions._ "Pretty okay, yeah," I said dryly. "Paulina's still obsessed with the idea of 'Paulina Phantom', not 'Paulina Fenton', but otherwise …"

Danny's smile was weak, but it was there.

And just about then, I felt a familiar tug, and then the world was fading, and I was hurtling across the lab, turning tangible just in time to slam my head on the ground. "Ow!"

"Phantom!"

It was my mom's voice. I groaned, sitting up and rubbing my head where I'd hit it. "You guys have got to work on the landing pad for this thing," I groaned. "Can we put a mattress right about here?"

"Danny! Did you find y—my brother?" Jazz said in exasperation.

I floated back to my feet, turning to face my anxiously waiting family, and shook my head. "Sorry … no," I said. "Not there." I hesitated; there wasn't much I could say about the reality that wouldn't give away my secret. "Um, it was pretty close to our reality, actually. I mean, the different event was only a couple of months in the past," I explained. "Should we try something further off?"

Mom was visibly disappointed that we hadn't had a hit on the first try. "I suppose," she said thoughtfully, fiddling with the remote.

"Aww, I wanted to operate the remote …" Dad whined.

"Now, honey, this thing is very delicate," Mom chided. "Remember the last time you handled delicate equipment?"

I did: Dad had blown up a quarter of the lab. Dad pouted, but Mom retained control of the remote. "All right, let's try something different," Mom agreed. "Here." She pointed at the portal. "Go ahead."

"Thanks," I said shortly, offering a small, reassuring smile to Jazz after noticing her worried glance at my torn hazmat suit. "See you in an hour."

Rinse, wash, repeat: I slipped into the Portal, and again there was the pulling and falling sensation.

It wasn't until my butt landed on the floor of the lab again that I realized that neither Mom nor Dad had been pointing an ecto-gun at me when I'd returned.

I stood up again, looking around curiously. This lab was almost identical to the one in my home dimension, but there was no Ghost Portal, no ectoplasm samples, no ecto-rifles. Instead, there were test tubes of normal things like sediment. The walls were plastered with maps of the tectonic plates and the Periodic Table of Elements.

There was the sound of glass shattering behind me. I whirled around to come face to face with …

Me?

It was me – my human self, specifically – but I was wearing glasses and my hair was dyed a fantastic shade of blue. The glass that had shattered was a test tube fallen from his fingers; he was staring at me as if I were an alien creature from Mars.

"What are you, and how did you get down here?" he demanded.

"Um … what did you do to your hair?" I answered, brushing my own white bangs with my fingers.

"I asked you first," Danny fired back, and now he was starting to put up his fists.

Okay, I was _not_ going to laugh at _myself_, but it was hard. I crossed my arms. "I'm you, from a different dimension – after an accident involving the Fe—er, ectoplasm and electrocution."

Danny's eyebrow rose. "Ectoplasm is only a theoretical substance."

"Oh, it's real enough," I temporized, noticing how he didn't question the alternate dimension part. However, the way he talked about ectoplasm … "Wait a minute. Let me guess: you don't believe in ghosts?"

"What does that have to do with—wait, are you saying you're … _my_ ghost?" he asked, looking very skeptical.

I opened my mouth and closed it. "Don't Mom and Dad chase ghosts?" I asked incredulously.

"Uh, no, that's crazy," Danny said as if it were obvious. "Even if they are real, what's the point of chasing them?"

I couldn't believe it. I was in a dimension where my parents hadn't devoted their entire lives to ghosts! I was at a momentary loss. "What do they do, then?" I asked.

"Mom's a chemist, Dad's a physicist," Danny said warily. He scowled. "I'm dreaming, aren't I? This is a weird dream."

"I wish you were," I muttered to myself, wondering about this Danny. Was he a science nerd? Was he popular because his parents weren't ghost-hunting freaks? Was his sister an annoying know-it-all? I couldn't even conceive of my parents being normal.

But I remembered my time limit abruptly. "Okay, this is all beside the point. Have you – or your parents, or Jazz or whatever – seen someone that looks like your twin running around?"

"Jazz? Who's Jazz?" Danny asked me.

"Would you stop latching onto the unimportant details?" I demanded, throwing up my hands. "Your. Twin! Have you seen him?"

Danny blinked, leaning back, and I wondered if my eyes had started glowing or something. People rarely found me _that_ intimidating. "N-no, no one like that," he stammered.

"David? Is everything all right down there?" called down a familiar voice from upstairs, and it wasn't my parents. I froze. _David? Am I really that far from my own reality? And is that …?_

"Uh … well … actually, Dad, can you come down here?" Danny – David – called back.

"Of course, David," called the voice, and there was the sound of shoes on the stairs. I shot towards the ceiling in an instinctive desire to not have to fight this 'Dad', turning intangible.

My head slammed against the ceiling, and I cried out in pain, clutching my head.

I couldn't go intangible. Why couldn't I go intangible?

"What's wrong?" asked 'Dad' as he came into the room.

"That!" David answered, pointing up at me.

I turned invisible, shuddering slightly as Vlad Masters looked right through me – literally.

_Vlad is my father? Now is that an 'ew' or a 'yikes'? And what the heck is happening to my powers?_

No time to worry about that; I floated silently up the stairs and fled out an open window, turning visible again outside my house even as Vlad not-so-gently accused 'David' of making things up to get attention.

My human half wasn't in this dimension: I already knew it.

_Tbc_

_And I'm sure you're all dying to know what happened to Human!Danny, so I hope you enjoy the next chapter._

_Thank you again, you wonderful reviewing-type peoples, you: Kitty Kyinsky, DP Fan, Anonymous Reader13, HiddenAuthor, Shimegami-chan, Bluemoonalto, YumeTakato, Rakahn, Sword on Fire, Amitra, Unrealistic, Sasia, and Pieling. You all have made my day(s), again. D_

_Reviews are appreciated and adored._


	12. Fanning the Flames

**Chapter 12: Fanning the Flames**

_But Valerie whirled to train her gun on me. "You're not fooling me," she snapped. I startled backwards, confused. "My ghost detector says there's two ghosts in here – and you're one of them."_

_Oh, no. Oh no oh no oh no._ I was once again detectable on ghost radar. What the heck was I going to say to make this better?

"Whatever ghost you are, get out of Fenton!" Valerie shouted.

"I-I--!" I started, but Valerie was true to her nature, which was to shoot first and ask questions later. She blasted at me with her rifle.

I turned intangible on instinct, but the blast hit me in the middle anyway, sending me flying back. My intangibility only served to make me fly through the wall behind me … and out into the open air.

I'd run out of building.

"Aaaaaaaah!" If I thought I'd been in trouble before, this was worse. I had my intangibility and ghost sense, and that was _it_. I couldn't fly, I couldn't heal fast, and I certainly wasn't going to be able to take the fall 20 stories to the unforgiving pavement. If I stayed intangible I'd just fall right through the earth and keep falling, which would ultimately be just as deadly. Without being able to counteract gravity, would I just keep falling until I hit the core of the earth? I didn't know, and honestly, none of these thoughts crossed my mind as the pavement rushed up to meet me. All I could think was _I'M GONNA DIE!_

I heard the sound of a jet screaming towards me as I flailed in the air, and then I slammed torso-first into Valerie's jet sled. "Oomph!"

"Cute," Valerie snarled over my head, grabbing me by the hair and pulling me up. "Very cute, very convincing! Don't worry, ghost, I won't let you kill Fenton just yet," she hissed.

The wind had been knocked out of my lungs, and it occurred to me abruptly that I'd suffered far more abuse at the hands of my supposed allies than any ghost in this reality. My breath hitched, my ribs were killing me by inches, and my scalp hurt. I clutched at Valerie's shirt for support. "I'm not—" I gasped.

"You're tenacious is what you are," Valerie growled. "Usually that blast knocks ghosts right out of a host's body!"

"T-that's because—"

"Shut up and get out of him! Don't make me force you." Her rifle dug into my chest again.

"I-I can't," I panted. "I can't—"

She shot me point-blank.

I was extremely lucky that the gun was meant to simply blast ghosts loose of their hosts. If not, I would have been dead. As it was, my chest was seared, and I screamed … and that's the last thing I remember.

&

I woke up to a pail of water being splashed in my face. Sputtering, I jerked upright, blinking water out of my eyes. "Augh!"

I was in a puddle of water … or actually, a pool of two-inch-deep water in a sewer. I shook my head a bit, soaked from head to toe in cold water and shivering. My hands were bound behind me; it felt like rough rope. Valerie was sitting on a narrow ledge in front of me, an ecto-rifle in one arm and one foot up on the ledge with her. "What's going on?" I asked hoarsely.

"Good to see you're awake, Fenton," said Valerie, her voice and face flat. "Or should I say, Phantom."

I looked up sharply.

"You just about had me fooled into thinking you were our visitor," Valerie continued. "But now I'm thinking you've dumped him somewhere and you're trying to take his place." She sneered. "I've missed you."

Oh, I could just imagine how much Valerie had missed Phantom.

Every breath made my lungs feel as if they were on fire. I remembered that I had been shot point-blank in the chest, and I decided to just feel lucky that I was still breathing at all. The question was: what should I say? Should I agree that I was Phantom disguising myself as my human self? If I didn't get away, that would cause me a lot of trouble. However, if I maintained I was their 'visitor', as Valerie put it, I would probably remain at her not-so-tender mercy – she'd be convinced I was lying. _Oh, get real_, I reminded myself._ Even if she believed you were Fenton, how would she react? She'd maintain that you're a ghost, and with plenty of evidence to back it up. You're screwed either way._

"Well? Don't you have anything to say?" Valerie demanded.

I eyed the ecto-rifle in her hands and shook my head wearily. My only hope, I decided, was to attack Valerie and flee, so when she found me again I could convince her that I was her visitor, not Phantom. Oh, wait … there was that ghost detector, sitting on her wrist and blinking. Well, I could break that when I attacked.

She'd had one very big oversight; ropes couldn't hold back a ghost, even one masquerading as a human. Maybe she was depending on me trying to maintain my human 'disguise'. I started to phase out of the ropes.

Nothing happened.

Were my powers shorting out again!?_ Not now!_ I screamed mentally, struggling with the ropes in a panicked moment.

"Oh, don't bother," Valerie smirked. She held up a device I found painfully familiar: the Plasmius Maximus. "This thing shorts out your powers for the next three hours, and I'll just zap you with it again and again until you tell me exactly what I want to know."

I gaped at her, utterly confused. "Wait, h-how did you get that?" I asked, my voice hoarse. "Did V-Sergei give that to you?"

Valerie's eyes widened. "How do you know that name?" she snapped.

It was my turn to be startled. Of course, Phantom wouldn't know the secret names of the Resistance – he was a malevolent ghost. I licked my lips, having a hard time thinking. My head was pounding.

Valerie reached out and grabbed me by the hair again, bending my head back and shoving the rifle up into my jaw. "I said, how do you know that name!?"

I wouldn't survive this one. For a ghost it would be painful, but it wouldn't destroy them; a blow from this rifle to my neck would probably destroy my throat. I couldn't think straight enough to manage even a halfway convincing lie … so I told the truth. "I-I'm not Phantom," I stammered. "I'm Fenton, the Fenton from another dimension. Y-you're Keira."

But Valerie's hand tightened, and she tugged so hard on my hair I was sure I was going to lose a chunk. "Don't LIE to me!" she screamed in my ear, her voice echoing around the sewer. "Who told you our names!?"

"Augh!" I winced as my ear went deaf with the scream, and coughed hard. "I know it's hard to believe, but it's true," I gasped, talking fast. "The accident that killed me here – it only half-killed me at home. I'm still alive, but I'm also partly a g – partly dead," I babbled, barely refraining from using the word 'ghost', which would just set her off further. "– I-it just – something happened when I jumped dimensions and—urk!"

"Shut up!" Valerie's voice was a snarl.

I didn't shut up, though – my only chance was to talk until she believed me. "My powers were shorted out by the jump, I think, just like the – that thing you used on me," I continued. "I can prove it. When you used that device, I should have reverted to my ghost appearance, right? Because this would just be a projection to fool you." Inspiration suddenly hit. "And my hand! Look, my hand," I continued. "Red blood. No ghost bleeds red. I'm still human."

Valerie held my head back at that extreme angle for a long moment, her breathing harsh against my ear, before she finally released me with a little shove. She reached for my hands, pushing my head down between my knees and yanking my wrists up my back awkwardly. I felt her rip away the cloth that covered my cut hand, and she ran her thumb none-too-gently down the wound. I winced, sucking in a breath through my teeth.

"You do bleed red," Valerie muttered. She released my bound wrists and stood, cuffing me on the back of the head. "What the hell are you?"

"A hybrid," I answered, feeling a bit humiliated. "Part ghost, but still human. And I swear I'm not trying to hurt you."

"That's not possible," Valerie muttered, pacing away from me before turning around, splashing through the water. I watched her every move. "How can anyone be part ghost and part human …?"

"I don't know," I said in a low voice.

Valerie stopped in front of me, her hands on her hips. "And why should I believe you're not malevolent, huh?"

"Because the Ghost King hasn't swarmed down on your hideout, I'm assuming?" I shot back. "Paulina and Star were bait: he attacked us in person. Did Kobal ever make it back?"

"None of your business," Valerie snapped. "You abandoned her!"

"She abandoned _me!_" I cried. "I didn't know what to do! She was being chased by ghosts and I couldn't do anything about it! We split ways."

"I thought you had ghost powers," Valerie snarled.

"Didn't I just say they got shorted out when I changed dimensions!?" I demanded. "I can't help being what I am, but I do my best with what I've got. Please believe me, Keira. I could have betrayed you to the Ghost King, but I didn't!"

"… You know what? I don't care." Valerie slung her rifle over her back and pulled out a smaller ecto-gun – one I recognized from the arsenal Jazz had supplied me with. My guns had been confiscated. She reached down and grabbed my soaked shirt, hauling me to my feet. I staggered. "You're a ghost, and I have no reason to trust you." She pulled me forward and shoved me away, making me stumble forward. "Walk."

Despite how wet I was, my throat was dry. I felt ill and battered, and depression began to take hold. Of course Valerie didn't believe me: this was like my worst nightmares come true, of me telling Valerie about myself and her never trusting me again.

I suppose I should have been grateful she hadn't tried to destroy me on the spot.

I slogged forward, splashing through the shallow water; I had to be helped down into the main sewers since my hands were tied back, but Valerie kept me marching in front of her. The light was dim, but still just bright enough to allow us to walk without a flashlight.

It occurred to me then that the ecto-rifle probably couldn't have hurt me, since the Plasmius Maximus had done its work and rendered me fully human for the moment. I laughed weakly at myself. What an idiot I was …

"What's so funny?" Valerie asked sharply.

I shook my head, the motion making me dizzy. "Nothing." But my mind wandered. 'Sergei' had given Sam her ghost-hunting equipment and Valerie a weapon that disabled ghosts – or ghost hybrids. Why? What was he up to? I had to solve this riddle to manage to do anything helpful in this universe.

"This way." Valerie pushed me in the right direction hard enough that I almost faceplanted in the ankle-deep water.

Maybe it was time to start worrying about myself.

I couldn't see straight by the time we reached the semi-familiar grill, and I wasn't sure why. I spread my legs to keep myself steady while Valerie deactivated the shield, and I let myself be shoved up into the piping, panting for breath on my knees.

"I haven't hurt you that badly," Valerie said coldly as I rested there, unwilling to stand.

"N-no," I agreed. "Just … tired. Sick." I closed my eyes.

"Ghosts can get sick?" Her voice was mocking.

I growled. "I'm human too, _Val_," I snapped. "And I haven't had anything to eat or drink for I don't know how long!"

Valerie grabbed me by the hair and hauled back my head again. "Don't you EVER call me that again," she hissed, her fingers twisting against my scalp until I was wincing.

She shoved my head back down, and I felt a strong shock on the back of my neck. "Aaah!" When I looked up, feeling a little woozy, Valerie had the Plasmius Maximus in her hands again. "Insurance," she announced. "Now, get up." She helped me to my feet with a fist in my shirt, practically dragging me along now.

"Can I please have some water?" I asked flatly.

"In a minute," Valerie answered, hauling me down a pipe and shoving me down to sit on a ledge. "I need to talk to Ferina and Tray," she informed me. "If you move from this spot, so help me—"

"What am I going to do, Keira?" I asked wearily. "What, exactly? I'm trapped in here, human or ghost." I felt defeated. "Just … go."

Valerie just looked at me for a long moment, evaluating me, before grasping my elbow and reaching behind me. I tried to see what she was doing, but she was too fast; the ropes around my wrists loosened, and the blood rushed back to my fingers, making me gasp. She then pulled both of my hands in front of me and re-lashed them before turning away and waving a hand. "I'll get someone to bring you something to eat," she said, and then she was gone.

&

Kwan was the one who brought me a Fenton Thermos full of water (I guessed they had never managed to activate one, since it took a ghostly charge to get them started. These really were just thermoses with the word 'Fenton' in front of it) and a sandwich. "Dude," He remarked upon seeing my bound hands. "What is Keira doing to you?"

"Never mind," I answered shortly, uncapping the Thermos by putting it between my knees before gulping down the contents. My stomach ached; it had been empty for so long. "Ooh …" I winced.

"Danny?"

I was about to take a bite of my sandwich when I heard the voice, and I looked up to see Jazz. She looked like someone had punched her in the stomach, and her mouth was set in a hard, sad line. "Danny?" she said again.

I swallowed hard, inexplicably ashamed of myself. How could I betray Jazz by being part ghost? What was wrong with me? "… That's me," I said at length.

"Really? It's really you?" Jazz's voice was laced with suppressed anger. "Because what I see is a traitor."

I felt as if I'd been slapped in the face. "What are you talking about?" I asked, trying to keep my hands from shaking.

"Keira told me. Told me she found you in the company of a ghost, and that you left Kobal behind." Jazz's hands were fists at her side. "And here you are, while she's still missing." She moved towards me, and I braced myself. "How could you?"

I sucked in a long breath and let it out through my nose. I felt guilty, but more than that, I felt angry. Valerie had twisted the story, and what leverage did I have? None: I was a ghost now. "I didn't abandon Kobal," I said carefully. "She was the one with the jet sled; I figured she escaped, and there was nothing I could do to help her." I licked my lips, sarcasm creeping into my voice. "But I suppose I can't help it, seeing as I'm just a ghos—"

Jazz slapped me across the face. "No, Danny!" She crouched down to my eye level as I sat there in shock, grabbing my shoulders. "This has nothing to do with what you are, ghost, human … it's about what you _do._"

Then she hugged me.

I stiffened in her arms. This was the last thing I had expected. "Keira told us the Ghost King attacked; all she saw was Kobal being chased, and you were gone." Jazz's shoulders hitched against my chin. "If you weren't ready for this, you should have said so!"

"I … I ran," I said quietly. "I shot the Crown of Fire off the Ghost King's head and ran to save my life. I assumed Kobal would be okay. I just … assumed." But now I felt the weight of guilt on my conscience. Sam was missing; I had only been safe because Technus saved me. It wasn't entirely logical, but I wished I had done something more.

Jazz' arms squeezed more tightly around me. "I hope you're telling the truth," she murmured. "I really hope so. I love you, Danny, ghost or not … but I want to trust in you."

And that, really, hurt more than any of Valerie's blows.

_Tbc_

_Whee, Danny abuse._

_Thank you again, you wonderful reviewers: Amitra, Anonymous Reader13, Shimegami-chan, HiddenAuthor, Rakahn, Kitty Kyinsky, cordria, Diamond Raider, YumeTakato, Sword on Fire, Unrealistic, Sasia, DP Fan, Pieling, and katiesparks._

_More by the end of the weekReviews are appreciated and adored._


	13. 13

**Chapter 13: 13 (Bad Luck)**

"No Danny?" Jazz asked as I brushed myself off from my return.

My gaze was on my father, who was trying to untangle the Fenton Fisher. "No Danny," I confirmed. Thank goodness for my home reality, I thought: being raised by Vlad was just too terrible to contemplate. And being named _David?_ Well, my Dad had said that one time when I changed history that 'Danny' was a stupid name …

How had I ended up named 'Daniel' anyway?

The question was irrelevant and I didn't have time for it. Mom looked annoyed. "Are you looking hard enough?" she asked.

"Mom! Of course he's looking hard," Jazz protested. Then she caught herself and blushed. "You care about Danny, right?" she asked me.

I answered as honestly as I could. "He's my responsibility." I glanced at Mom from the corner of my eye; she looked impressed and surprised briefly, then sighed.

"I suppose all we can do is keep looking," she acknowledged. "Hmm … let's try a different shift." She twisted a knob on the remote control, and the mist in the portal shifted slightly in color, towards a purple hue. "Try again."

I twisted my fingers around the bracelet on my arm and nodded. I couldn't go intangible, but that wasn't a bar to success; I would just have to be more careful. "Yes, ma'am," I couldn't help mocking slightly, before feeling a moment of pure thankfulness that I could still alter my form to a mistlike state.

The sensation of reforming was significantly different this time, though. I felt like I was trying to possess someone, squeezing into a foreign – and yet very familiar – body. I struggled and fought with another consciousness, and then … we _merged._

When a ghost overshadows a human, they can pluck certain amounts of information straight out of the human's brain, but generally the mind becomes the ghost's own. They do not merge consciousnesses and become like one being or anything weird and Biblical like that – the ghost simply moves the human as if its body were its own. But this overshadowing was completely different, with no dominant party. Both our minds became one, both of us flooding one another with memories as we became one very conflicting – and yet not so conflicting – person.

I had merged with Danny Phantom, and one very unhappy Danny Phantom at that. Looking back on it, it's much easier to tell how we intermingled, but at the time I was two Phantoms at once – a distraught, lost one and a furious yet downtrodden one. The outpouring of knowledge that wasn't mine from both sides was overwhelming, so I'll try to keep it simple – but we were 'we', and I can't help thinking about it in the plural.

We opened our eyes after the merging had been completed to bubbling ectoplasm surrounding us in the tube we were trapped in. Electrodes had been attached to our hands, chest, temples, and thighs, measuring vitals that no one had ever bothered to explain to us. We were an object of experimentation, and had been for nearly 4 years with only the briefest exceptions, ever since the accident.

See, this Danny had never been Danny Fenton. At the moment the Ghost Portal electrocuted him, there had been brief death, and a ghost was formed with Danny's consciousness. But when Danny came back to life, his heart restarting under Tucker's violently administered CPR, the ghost, so infused with ectoplasm, was unable to simply slip back into the body whose consciousness powered him.

Both lived. Danny Fenton and Danny Phantom, once one person, were now a ghost and a human, both fully functional.

But the Fentons had promptly captured the weak ghost throwoff, and after months of curious experimentation, Phantom had been sold to the Guys in White.

That's where we were now. There was some confusion as to how we had gotten here, thanks to my memories conflicting with his, but since my knowledge was largely irrelevant, it was shunted aside.

A Guy in White came into the room then – Agent O, I supplied from my own memories – and looked up at us from a clipboard. We shuddered with the memory of lots of really painful experiments. He frowned at us; we just looked back at him. We had not used our voice in months, since the Guys in White never listened – unless they spoke to us first, which was very rarely.

"Freakshow has broken into our lab in Idaho," Agent O said, going to the wall of samples to our right. "He's acquired the Reality Gauntlet and the three jewels. Does that mean anything to you?"

It meant nothing to the other Phantom, but it meant something to me. We spoke, our voice rough. "He's trying to alter reality to his whims. Does he know the order the gems must be lit in?"

"We don't know," Agent O said. He quirked an eyebrow at us over his sunglasses. "You're unusually cooperative today."

The anger that hit us overwhelmed me. "Let us out!" we snarled, banging suddenly on the tubing; it repelled us. "If he tries to hurt our family--!"

"You have no family," Agent O said firmly. "You're a ghost." He seemed confused.

"Tell us something we don't know!" we shot back.

"'We'?" asked Agent O. He pressed an intercom button. "Agent P, we have a new development with Experiment 320-CQ in Containment Room 5. Hurry."

We fell silent, fuming, our new consciousness confused and angry. Freakshow was furious when the Fentons had disarmed him of his ghost minions – we knew. We had been there, the attack dog of the Guys in White. We resented the Fentons for handing us over to the Guys in White, and yet we loved them as our family. Because of my presence, the love was the stronger part today.

"In any case, you're being called for again. The President has declared this a national emergency and asked for you specifically." Agent O filled a syringe with black fluid. I was cringing, but we knew what it was; not just an energy serum, but one that infused us with viciousness. It suppressed our consciousness and turned us into something more like a poltergeist, malevolent. It wasn't hard to turn us, anymore; the fury was just below the surface, coated thinly with depression.

"Freakshow is a terrorist," Agent O said, lifting a tube that trailed into our containment device and up our arm. "Take any measure to end his attempted reign of terror." He flooded the tube with the black liquid.

We cringed, and I cried out. "Don't do this, we can do this without destroying him, don't--!"

Then the serum flooded our brain, and words were gone.

&

What happened next is a blur in my head, but I guess I'm glad I don't remember. We were cuffed and leashed and held down like an animal, but we were acting like an animal, incoherent with rage. The moment the cuffs were off we would avenge anything we were told to. Our appearance was different as well, black gloves with claws and greenish-tinted skin underneath, pointed teeth gnashing. We hated this, we feared it, we reveled in it.

And we were on the attack. Everywhere was our territory. Freakshow never stood a chance; we destroyed Lydia with a blast of black power, wiped out his other ghost minions with the energy of an angry poltergeist, tore the Reality Gauntlet, only half-functional, off his arm, and broke his arm in the process.

I don't know what we did to Freakshow. I don't remember and I don't want to remember. I know we were stopped short of killing him, barely, because there was sharp pain in the back of our neck and we rounded on our attackers before there was the sensation of slipping away, as if we'd exited our spectral body.

When we woke up we were in a cage, our limbs bloody with ectoplasm (ours and Lydia's) and human blood (Freakshow's). We were weak, too worn to even lift our head. The cage glowed green with energy, but a hand reached through the bars and rubbed our head almost affectionately. "Well done, ghost boy," said the agent who was (gag!) petting us.

We just closed our eyes, unwilling to speak and drag out those horrible conversations we had whenever we bothered to open our mouths.

The Guys in White didn't want to hear it.

&

When we awoke, however, it was not in our tube – we were on a stretcher, cuffed down with cuffs we couldn't phase out of. My part of the brain argued that we couldn't phase out of anything at all, since we could no longer go intangible, but the other Danny disagreed. It didn't matter anyway; we were trapped as always, as we had been for years.

We had a vague awareness that more than one hour had passed, and that disturbed us, since we should have been dragged back to my original reality by now. But instead of fury or confusion, there was only despair. We would never escape this. We had tried for a so long and failed so many times; we were resigned to our fate.

We had not yet healed from the battle with Freakshow. An agent, this one female, stood over us, blocking the harsh light. We looked up at her as she read her own notes aloud to herself. "Lower stamina, failing signature …. Sir," she said, looking up and across the room. "It's not healing at the rate it's supposed to. The experiment has been seriously set back. How many times have I told you, I don't think it's smart to use that serum on it?"

"It's the only way to justify its funding," protested whomever she was speaking to; we couldn't crane our neck that far. "The painful experiments have been limited in usefulness, since it's not a true ghost – only a throwoff of a human. It's much stronger than a normal ghost, but also lacking in stamina."

"When you use the serum on it, you seriously drain its ectoplasmic reserves. It's going to take days for it to heal fully – if it ever does."

"An interesting question," noted the disembodied voice. "Can a ghost be scarred?"

The woman gave us a contemplating look. "We've never experimented to find out."

"Perhaps, if a ghost can be somehow permanently injured, than it may become less of a threat. The most powerful ghosts can barely be contained as it is; we certainly can't obliterate them."

We felt nervous. The woman, however, reached down suddenly and grasped our arm – with gloves, of course – and held up a scalpel. "No pulse," she said softly. "Do you suppose a ghost can recover a lost limb?"

"It's possible," agreed the disembodied voice. "There's only one way to find out." There was a cold smile in his words as he continued. "I'll even fill out the paperwork for you, if you'd like to go ahead."

We felt instant panic. We had never had a limb cut off before, but we didn't think it could be reformed or reattached! My mind supplied us images of a maimed Johnny 13, injured by my evil future self, and we both shied back.

"We're a weapon," we pointed out, our voice barely a whisper. "You can't maim us; you'll make us useless!"

"'We'?" Asked the girl.

"It has recently seemed to be experiencing some sort of dissociate disorder. It may have been suppressed but prevalent in Daniel Fenton, only to be thrown off by the accident in the form of this ghost, since Mr. Fenton has no signs of such a disease of the mind," the disembodied voice said.

"Ah." The woman turned back to us. "Don't worry, ghost – we won't take anything vital," she said almost warmly.

Then she chopped off our pinky finger.

&

The finger didn't reform. The detached finger had dissolved into ectoplasm. We had been in agony for close to an hour before we were finally administered with whatever it was that made us retreat from reality into 'sleep'.

In our sleep, this time unaffected by the serum, our consciousnesses seemed to distill. I opened my eyes – and my eyes only – in this dream to a place that seemed like the Ghost Zone, full of creepy green ectoplasm and purple doors, but when I looked up, the Zone merged directly into a lab of computers and samples and tubing, containing a Phantom that was older than me, but thin – almost gaunt – and with inhuman fury in his eyes.

He was missing a finger; I was not. And the bracelet that I'd never quite thought to miss was on my arm – but not his.

"What have you done to my head?" Phantom asked, his voice chilling.

I wrapped my arms around myself. "I-I merged with you," I said shakily. His world was a more frightening place than my own, and I was the one standing in some mental rendition of the Ghost Zone. "I'm not supposed to be here. I'm you from another dimension, and I'm looking for my human half."

"He betrayed me," Phantom said weakly. "He wouldn't even look at me when I formed." He closed his eyes. "I wish I hadn't formed."

I could see why. After living his life for the last few hours – days? It was hard to tell – I would have wished to dissolve myself. His despair and depression seemed to press down on me from all sides, and even though we both possessed this mind, it was his body; he was the stronger one. "Look, I'm sorry Fenton is a jerk here, but I was supposed to get sent back to my dimension a – a while ago." I spoke quickly, unsure when we would wake up and once again be merged. "Isn't there some way the Guys in White can separate us?"

Now having a conversation with direction, Phantom's look became more focused and determined. He seemed to think about it. "I doubt it," he said finally. "More importantly, they won't believe us if we say we're two different Phantoms. It's the definition of insanity, after all."

Phantom's _smile_ was a little crazy for my tastes. I pushed on. "But you believe I'm from another dimension."

"Either that, or you're some kind of mental embodiment of what I wish I was – and my mind really did snap earlier today," Phantom said, his tone dry. "But no; I'm not creative enough to come up with half the things in your head – and having been in your head, I know what you're going to ask next. No, I don't know if your human half is here. If he had come, he's probably dead, killed on the assumption he was me."

"But he can't go ghost," I pointed out.

Phantom shook his head. "No; but I can appear to be human." His smile was crooked. "Oh, crud … we're waking up again."

I could feel it too, and I cringed in anticipation of pain. "That answers my question, though," I said. I could still sense, at least in this little pocket of reality, that my human half was alive. "Thanks."

"No problem." Phantom reached out and grasped my hand. "But when you go back, can you please try to take me with you?"

"I'll try," I promised, but I doubted I could.

I doubted I could go home at all.

We were remerging. I could feel his depression and pain like it was my own again. We were Phantom again, at once 15 and 19 years old – one and four years of ghost-dom – at once losing it and lost.

We screamed, furious with pain. Our finger wasn't healed over yet, but we were in our tube of ectoplasm again. A cluster of agent scientists stood around us.

"It's definitely not tried to reform the finger," said one agent. "His ghost signature is all over the place, and he has two frequencies right here – almost identical, but not quite. And this frequency … it shouldn't even exist. These bandwaves can't be produced on this planet."

"Do us a favor and put us back under," we gasped, "if you won't give us something to make it STOP HURTING!"

"Didn't we warn you long ago about painful experiments?" asked one GiW.

"Not this painful!" we roared, although its pain was probably comparable to some of the worst things they had done to us. The fury was building along with the pain. We wanted out, desperately.

My mind suddenly supplied the way. And with twice the ghostly energy of a normal, non-merged ghost, there was actually a chance it would work.

"Leave … us … ALOOOO" the last word degenerated as it left our lips, becoming a Ghostly Wail. It shattered the tubing, flung the GiWs across the room, sent alarms blaring. We collapsed as the Wail faded away, landing on our hands and knees in the ectoplasmic junk and shattered glass from our tube.

"-alone," we finished, hanging our heads as we tried to catch some energy.

We knew we had best run while we had the chance. Guys in White would be swarming down on us any second now. We struggled to our feet, trying to remember how to fly when not filled with unholy fury and remembering thanks to my own head. We sailed out of the building and unsteadily flew to a nearby wood, settling amongst the trees.

We had peace for a moment, even though we knew our freedom would probably be short-lived, that we would be tracked down and recaptured before we could recover.

And then, I felt it – an all too welcome feeling of separation. I grasped helplessly for that other consciousness, the other Danny, but I couldn't get a hold of him; I was distilled again, but this time from reality itself.

I reformed on the Fentonworks floor shaking, my teeth chattering from shock. I didn't even try to get up, first grasping my hand to assure my pinky finger was still attached.

"Phantom?"

"Danny!?"

"Ghost boy!?"

All three of my family members came at me, and I drew up my shoulders, shouting. "Leave me alone!" I sat up and wrapped my arms around myself protectively. "Please … I just need a few minutes …"

"Are you all right, Danny?" Jazz asked, reaching for my shoulder.

I licked my lips, unwilling to even look at my parents. "Not yet," I admitted. "I need … I need a little while …"

"Did you see Danny?" Mom asked hopefully.

I felt a pang of guilt for my selfishness in wanting to be left alone for a bit – after all, my own human half was on the line, possibly on the verge of death out there somewhere – but I needed to recover, both from merging consciousnesses and from the horror of being experimented on in such brutal ways. "No," I said wearily. "And I just … need to sit down for a little while."

Fortunately, even though the look Mom gave me was a furious one, Jazz helped me.

_Tbc_

_And more Danny abuse. For those who are confused, Danny Phantom merges with Danny Phantom because they're both 'throwoffs' of Danny – two Phantoms with human counterparts that still live. Since they're nearly the same, they can't co-exist, so they merge._

_Also, the time frame was no glitch. But more on that when we return to Phantom two chapters from now, bwahaha._

_Thank you, reviewers: Horselvr4evr123, Bluemoonalto, nathow11, Amitra, DiscordianSamba, YumeTakato, Sword on Fire, ShiroandFubuki, Shimegami-chan, Rakahn, Sasia, kitsunefire, Unrealistic, Pieling, HiddenAuthor, and cordria! (Wow, the Danny abuse really brings some of you out of the woodwork. I think.) You have all made my week just fantastic, although I didn't even realize I was getting reviews for a while thanks to entire mail alert system failing. I hope you all find this chapter, since you won't receive an alert for it._

_Reviews are appreciated and adored._


	14. Public Enemies

_Sorry for the long wait for this chapter! For those who forgot where we were: Danny Fenton, trapped in an alternate universe, has been revealed to be half-ghost; Sam is missing, and Jazz just wants to help._

_Enjoy!_

**Chapter 15: Public Enemies**

"In the absence of Kobal, I'll be taking over operations here," Valerie announced. "I'll take your silence as assent."

We were all in a large-ish pipe – and by 'all', I mean most of the refugees from the Ghost King's reign, save a few guards near the entrance. I recognized a lot of the faces, although I didn't know everyone's names – real or fake. I was sitting behind Valerie, who was facing the rest of the crowd with her hands on her hips, with my hands still trussed up in front of me, although Val hadn't zapped me with the Plasmius Maximus in some time. I suspected my powers – or power, as it were – was on the verge of returning, but I wasn't about to try to phase out of the ropes binding my wrists together. I wanted to keep things as peaceable as possible, which meant seeming as human as possible.

"First order of business: relocation," Valerie continued. "Kobal is missing." There were some quiet murmurs in response to this information. "For all we know, she is dead or injured; she might also have been captured, in which case it's only a matter of time before the Ghost King is on our doorstep."

"But he can't get through our shield," Kwan pointed out.

Valerie was not amused. "If he sieges us, we're as good as dead," she snarled. "We start packing as soon as this meeting is over. Ferina and I will be going out in search of a good place. Any questions?"

There was silence.

"Good. Next order of business: Danny Fenton." She pointed at me. "He's a ghost."

There were gasps, and I scowled. "Half-ghost," I corrected, "And I only have like one of my powers!"

"I don't care!" Valerie snapped. "He left Kobal behind on a mission!" she addressed the crowd. "As far as I'm concerned, he's a traitor!"

"Throw him out!" shouted Mikey, his geeky voice carrying over the muttering. I resisted the urge to slap my forehead. "Who cares what happens to him!?"

"I wish I could, but he knows a lot about us," Valerie said in a low voice. "Far too much for me to drop him where the Ghost King can get him." She put her hands on her hips. "For now, he's under guard. Jared? Koya?" Dash and Kwan lifted their heads. "He's your responsibility for n—"

"Wait!"

Everyone looked up at the interruption, me included. It was, to my relief, Tucker and Jazz … and they were lugging a very familiar invention between the two of them: the Ghost Catcher.

"I've got an idea!" Tucker said breathlessly, helping Jazz set the Ghost Catcher upright. "So Danny's got some ghostly traits. We can cull them out with this!" He jerked his thumb at the invention. "The Foley Ghost Catcher!"

_Oh no._ I could see where he was going with this, but of course, _this_ Tucker had no idea what it could do to me. I'd been through the Ghost Catcher three times – all three times with different results – and I didn't want to know what it would do with me when I only had one ghostly power. "No," I said flatly.

Jazz, at least, ignored me. "What we're afraid of is him being in league with the Ghost King, right?" she asked. "But he's only in league with ghosts. If Danny isn't a ghost, then Danny won't have any reason to go to the Ghost King!"

"NO!" I shouted, jumping to my feet. All eyes went to me, and I cleared my throat. "Look, I know you guys don't know about it, but me and that thing don't really … get along."

"Who cares?" Valerie asked. Her expression said that the fact I didn't like it was all the more reason to force me through that thing. I had to come up with a good argument, and fast.

"We have the same thing in my dimension!" I protested. "And the last time I went through it, there were _two_ of me, and we _both_ had ghost powers! You don't want that, do you?" I neglected to mention that my powers hadn't really duplicated, but had been split; they didn't need to know that.

Jazz frowned, and Tucker rubbed his chin. "Weird. How did that happen? This shouldn't be able to duplicate things …"

"I don't know, but are you sure you want to find out?" I asked.

Everyone shifted and murmured again, and I swallowed uncertainly.

And that, with perfect dramatic timing, was when Sam walked in on us.

"Hello," she said, in her full Red Hunter gear. Even her visor was on, and she was carrying one of her ecto-weapons; she didn't look any worse for the wear. I felt a shudder of relief go through me to see she was all right.

"Kobal!" Valerie exclaimed, obviously relieved. "Don't go scaring us like that, girl!"

But Sam didn't move for a long moment. Her head cocked slightly, and I could almost imagine that scary, malicious smile she wore sometimes forming on her face as she asked:

"Did you miss me?"

She shot Valerie almost point-blank in the chest.

Jazz let out a startled screech; Tucker grabbed her and hauled her back towards one of the offshooting pipes. Chaos immediately broke out as refugees screamed scrambled to run even as Valerie thudded to the ground, unmoving. And me? I just stood there, shocked for a long moment, until my breath came out in puffs of mist.

_She's in league with the ghosts!_ The thought spurred me to action as Sam kicked her heels together and formed her jet sled. "Round them up!" She shouted, just as an army of Plasmius' ghost goons pounded into the room, chasing everyone down the pipes.

I flung myself through the stampede to Valerie's side; she had curled up on her side, clutching her chest. The gun was an ectoplasm-based weapon, so her skin hadn't been broken, but her chest was bruised and her ribs probably cracked. A shot to the heart like that one could really mess up someone's heartbeat, I remembered Mom telling me; the electricity necessary to make a tangible shot was—

"Ah …" Valerie gasped, shuddering. I pressed a hand to her neck, shaking myself; her pulse was fluttering. In the chaos we were momentarily forgotten.

"Hang on, Val, hang on," I gasped. I needed to be free of these ropes, and I needed to be free now!

And maybe there is a god, because even as I wished for it, my wrists phased through the rope holding them together. I whooped and looped my arms underneath Valerie's shoulders and knees, hauling her up with a grunt of effort. She was heavy (but don't ever tell her I said that).

"Get away from me … ghost …" Valerie panted.

"Not a chance," I smirked, getting to my feet. Where could we hide? I half-ran down one of the pipes aimlessly; I had no idea where we were! And ghosts were pouring through the walls everywhere; Plasmius had really gone all-out for this raid. If you judged from my breath, you would have thought it was thirty degrees below zero.

I took a turn, but I could see we were being surrounded. There were at least twenty ghosts behind me, approaching fast, and we were at a dead end. If I had been alone, I would have just phased through a wall and hidden there for a while, but with Val in my arms, I wasn't sure I could do that. Intangibility is great, but when I'm human, I do need to breathe sometime; I've never had people go intangible with me in something solid for more than half a minute, and that wouldn't be long enough.

I turned to face the ghosts, panting a little, and put forth a little hope.

_Turn invisible. Turn invisible!_

And it was all I could do to stifle myself when I – and Valerie in my arms – disappeared from view. Finally! It was like flexing a well-used muscle to turn us intangible as well. The ghost goons from Walker's prison looked confused, pulling up short; the skeletons kept charging, milling around us and through us. I shuddered, and Valerie's eyes slid shut, her body shaking. _Hang on, Val!_ I urged.

"Where'd he go?" demanded one of the ghost goons.

"He disappeared! He's gotta be here somewhere," pointed out another.

"Maybe he was one o' those hologram thingiemajigs." The ghost spun his finger in the air. "You know, to throw us off."

"Whatever." The first goon shrugged. "Missin' two of 'em shouldn't matter. Let's go." They turned to leave, and the skeletons left with them, marching away.

I sighed with relief, moving to sit and lay Valerie back down as soon as they were completely gone – but Valerie practically sat up in my arms, forcing me to drop her. "Ugh! What the hell was that, Fenton!?" she asked in a harsh whisper.

"I-I made us invisible," I explained, nonplussed. "Are you—"

"I'm – nngh – I'm fine," Valerie answered, pressing her hand to her chest. "And I don't need you or your freaky powers to fight these guys!"

She was still obviously hurting, but I knew from experience that arguing with Valerie would be a waste of time. "If you say so," I said doubtfully. "I'm just trying to help."

"Yeah? And what kinda coincidence is it that—" Valerie suddenly fell silent, light dawning on her face. "… YOU! This is all your fault!"

"What!?" I jerked back, scowling. "How can this be _my_ fault! _Sam_ is the one that shot you in the chest! It's obvious the Ghost King—"

"Shut up!" Valerie snapped. "You betrayed her, didn't you!? Then you delayed us so the Ghost King could find us!" She was near tears. I grimaced. "You're nothing but a lying, cheating ghost, and I hate you!"

I tried to struggle through the logic of this, but Valerie was so furious I didn't really have time. "Valerie, the ghosts – if we shout—"

"You'd LIKE that, wouldn't you!?" Valerie screamed. "I can't believe—Sam would never—Everyone--!"

She took gulping breaths, her hand hard against her heart, and I could imagine how much pain she was in; she'd done the same to me only hours ago. "Val," I tried to reason with her.

Valerie jumped at me, trying to pin me down. We grappled for a long moment, me trying to keep her hands off my throat and her doing her best to get at it. "Valerie, this is stupid! Why would I protect you from those goons if I wanted everyone captured!?" I demanded.

"I dunno, to trick me? I don't pretend to know what ghosts are thinking," Valerie hissed.

But it was about then that it occurred to me that I could use my ghost powers again. I made myself intangible first; Valerie thudded to the ground, her hands in my chest, and I stood up. "Okay, you know what? I'm done," I said flatly as she turned onto her back to glare up at me. "I've tried reasoning with you, and you still won't listen. So why don't you just rest here until your chest feels better, and I'll go see what I can do about the ghost invasion."

Without waiting for an answer, I turned invisible and plodded down the hall, trying to find my way back to Tucker and Jazz's lab; they would have the supplies I would need to face this ghost army single-handedly.

&

I don't know how much later – or how many near-ghost encounters later – I finally found the lab, but it was already being ransacked by ghosts. Jazz and Tucker were nowhere to be found. I pressed myself against the wall and edged myself around until I was near the ecto-guns, invisible the whole time; the ghosts didn't seem to notice as they fiddled with the inventions.

"What does this do?" one asked his buddy, hoisting what looked like the Fenton Bazooka.

"Who cares? Just bring it to—Aaah!" his buddy cried out in horror as the first ghost pulled the trigger, sending out a portable ghost portal that sucked his fellow ghost inside.

"… whoops," whispered the ghost, dropping the gun and disappearing through the floor.

I snickered, reaching for two ecto-guns as the remaining ghosts shrugged at each other.

Twenty seconds later, they too were ejected from the room with an ectoplasmic blast.

This was really hopeless, I reflected. I'd wasted too much time with Valerie; everyone was probably captured by now. But maybe – at least, I hoped – I could save Sam. She probably had one of those weird mind-control chips in her brain; if I could deactivate it, then we'd be in business! With all the weapons she had at her disposal, we could probably save everyone before they were taken to … well, wherever they were going.

But when I started looking for the gun-thing that Tucker had used on me in case I had one of those chips, I couldn't find it; I only had a few minutes to look, anyway, before I was deluged with ghosts. Word must have gotten out that someone was in the lab.

I wished I could have stayed intangible and invisible forever, but I was getting tired again; I ran, dodged, and fired. My aim isn't as great as it ought to be, but having back some of my powers was a huge boost to my confidence, and frankly, there wasn't too many places I could shoot at and _not_ hit a ghost. I was way outnumbered; all I could do was go down fighting.

I almost didn't notice when two ghosts went flying over my head to phase through the wall behind me with cries of dismay, but I did notice when Valerie came running up to me, firing all the way – and not at me. "V—Keira?" I shouted, not letting up and barely daring to glance at her.

"I don't know what I think about you yet, Fenton," Val snarled, panting as she double-handed her ecto-rifle and blasted away at the ghosts, taking out two and three at a time with its scattershot. "But you're right about one thing – you wouldn't be fighting these goons if you were on their side!"

I smiled, but it wasn't a very friendly smile. "Glad you believe me about one thing at least," I replied.

Val was just as awesome a ghost fighter in this universe as she is in mine, and I was holding my own, but we weren't inexhaustible. I was still pretty beat-up from Valerie dragging me back here, and of course, Val had been shot in the chest with an ecto-gun. We were both slowing down.

But the last straw was when one of my ecto-guns ran out of juice. It was shot out of my hand, and I yelped, clenching my burnt fingers; Valerie was forced to fall back as the ghosts concentrated on her for that one critical second. I double-handed my remaining gun, but my hand was shaking, and suddenly Valerie careened into me, slamming into my back. I yelped again, crashing to the floor with Val on me. Three seconds later we were both encased in green energy, which reformed as cuffs around our wrists and ankles. I groaned, flashing back to the time Walker had captured me in the Ghost Zone.

What surprised me, however, was that Sam was the culprit. She walked over, holding one of the nightsticks Walker's guards had in my dimension, and looked down at us. "You two caused us a bit of trouble," Sam said with an odd smirk.

"Kobal," Valerie snarled, and I elbowed her. Valerie's glare turned on me.

"King Plasmius has some business with you," Sam continued. She tossed something at one of the ghosts. "Knock them out, just to be safe," she advised. "Let's go."

The ghost smiled, then floated down to Valerie and myself; I cringed upon seeing what it was holding.

"The—"

But then the ghost pressed it to my ear, and a shock went through me that knocked me out cold – and guaranteed I would be powerless again for the next several hours.

After all, what Sam had thrown at the ghost was the Plasmius Maximus.

_Tbc_

_I think this chapter is actually a little short, but it's packed with action and has a little Danny x Valerie action._

_Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter: Me-against-the-world, Linda, Xx.Fma-DNAngel.xX, DP fan, Henshi-anichan, Mr. Snuffles, Morgruth, Bluemoonalto, phantomphriend, Sword on Fire, YumeTakato, Amitra, Rakahn, HiddenAuthor, Pieling, DiscordianSamba, and Unrealistic. You once again have made my … er, months? And I really appreciate the feedback!_

_Thank you for reading! Please leave a review!_


	15. Infinite Realms II

**Chapter 15: Infinite Realms II**

I floated up the stairs and into the family room, Jazz right behind me. "Danny, talk to me," she encouraged gently.

"Not now," I protested, settling back on the couch and pressing my face into my (thankfully whole) hands.

Jazz sat next to me. "Did something happen?"

I sighed; Jazz wasn't going to leave me alone until I talked this out, was she? "Let's just say … there are more horrible things under the sun than I thought." After a moment I rested my elbows on my knees, rubbing my pinky finger. "My human half wasn't there."

"You already told us," Jazz said reassuringly. She rubbed my back. "Are you going to be okay?"

"Yeah, eventually," I nodded. "It's just … a lot of weird things happened. Horrible things, too, but weird things as well." I shuddered as I thought of the Phantom I'd left behind, half-insane and half-monster, trapped in his own reality. I wanted to go back for him, but if merging with him hadn't been enough to drag him home with me, I didn't know what _would_ be.

Pounding footsteps on the stairs shifted our attention to the basement door, though. Mom appeared, giving me a look somewhere between accusatory and mystified. "Phantom, we've got to keep looking for Danny," Mom said sharply. "What's wrong with—"

"Mom!" Jazz protested. "He had a really hard time in that last dimension! Ghosts have feelings too, you know," she added in that obnoxious superior tone she had.

Mom was taken aback. I took a deep breath, trying to suck it up. It was true; somewhere, my human half was lost and without his – our – powers; we really had to hurry up and find him, especially if he'd ended up somewhere as horrible as that dimension. I opened my mouth to agree with Mom, but she beat me to it. "A hard time?" she asked.

I rubbed the back of my neck. "I … was there longer than I thought I was supposed to be," I began. "It sure didn't feel like just one hour."

Mom began to walk into the family room, and I straightened, leaning away slightly. She was totally unpredictable like this. "Really?" she asked, settling on the loveseat (and allowing me to relax).

Jazz was giving me a look that said she knew I wasn't telling the whole story. I ignored her. "Well, it's not like I had a watch on me," I pointed out. "But … um …" I hesitated. "I met a … Danny … that was definitely older than m—your son." It was twisting the truth a little hard.

"Really!?" Mom sounded impressed. "Hmm … well, it's possible time moves at different speeds in different dimensions." She suddenly looked alarmed. "Oh no. What if Danny is in—" she broke off. "Oh, that's silly. Never mind."

"No, what?" Jazz wanted to know.

"Oh, I was just thinking that it would be horrible if Danny were in a dimension that moved far faster than ours. He could die of old age before we got to him! But that's impossible; a dimension moving that fast would be too far from our own."

I bit my lip. _We hope_.

Mom stood. "Is that all?" she asked me.

I hesitated again. What was I supposed to say? Would Mom be able to explain why I merged with that other version of Phantom? Maybe, but did I really want to tell her about it? Did it really matter how it happened?

Fortunately, Jazz came to my rescue again. "I don't think he wants to talk about it," she said, and then cut off Mom before she could protest. "He's being nice and helping us, Mom! Do unto others," she quoted. "Come on; I promise I'll have him back downstairs in five minutes."

Mom looked annoyed, but she sighed. "Well, all right. If he—"

"For the last time," I growled, "I'm not going to do anything funny!" My eyes glowed. Quite suddenly, the air was thick with tension as Mom and I stared each other down, but ghost or not, she was still _Mom_. I backed down. "I don't want to hurt you guys. Can't you just believe me?"

"No," Mom responded promptly. "But I'll give you the benefit of the doubt." She turned to leave.

I groaned and flopped back on the couch as soon as Mom had left. "I can't take this any more," I moaned. "We'd better find my human half, and soon!" Half talking to myself, I muttered, "Before I lose any more powers …"

"Wait, what?" Jazz snapped. "You're losing your powers?"

I looked at her. "I can't turn intangible any more," I explained. "And I don't think I ever had my ghost sense since the split."

"Why didn't you say something!?" Jazz gasped. "We're sending you into dangerous situations while you're losing your powers!?"

She was winding up for a really good rant when I cut her off. "Jazz." She hesitated. "Danny is out there, somewhere, without _any_ powers. At least I have some." I went to stand up. "I've got to find him."

Jazz grabbed my hazmat suit. "Danny, wait. You don't understand." Jazz looked very serious. "You're not a ghost per se, remember? You're a throw-off manifestation of Danny's ghost half."

"…. Okay …" I said slowly. "Good enough to fool Mom and Dad, so what's the difference?"

"If you're losing your powers … they may not just be disappearing back into thin air: they're probably going back to Danny." She met my eyes. "Danny … you're probably fading out of existence!"

&

After _that_ heartwarming piece of news, I had a brief panic attack. Now there really _was_ a definite clock ticking on locating Danny: we had to do it before I faded away entirely. And knowing that it was inevitable shook me.

I walked back down the stairs to the lab numbly. I wondered what would happen if I faded away; would I just remerge with Danny's consciousness? To me, losing my powers felt like losing parts of myself, but what Jazz had basically just told me was that I wasn't the _real_ Danny. I wasn't even really his ghost half. I was just his powers with part of his consciousness, floating around without his body along for the ride. Every time _I_ lost a power, I was really just … _relocating _it.

I had to find Danny before there wasn't enough left of me to find him.

"Ready, Ghost Kid?" Dad boomed at me. Mom scowled slightly, and I sighed.

"Yeah." I stepped in front of the portal. "Let 'er rip."

"Go right ahead, Phantom." Mom waved me at the Portal.

I took a deep breath, glancing at Jazz, and went through.

&

I was getting better at my landings; this time, I didn't even hit the ground as I materialized in the Fenton Lab in … another dimension?

My mom, dad, and Jazz were all standing around what looked like the Fenton Interdimensional Portal, which was positioned right in front of the working Ghost Portal. Everything looked almost identical to how I had left it.

Mom pulled a Fenton Bazooka from nowhere and pointed it at me. "We didn't call you back yet! How did you get here!?"

"Mom, relax!" Jazz protested, putting a gentle hand on the gun Mom was holding. "Phantom, did you find everyone?"

I blinked. "Everyone?" I asked.

Jazz cocked her head at me slightly. "Yeah … Sam, Tucker, _Danny_ …" The look she gave me was a pointed one.

_Woah!_ I'd been dropped into a universe that was almost identical – only in this one, somehow I'd been sucked into another dimension _after_ meeting up with Sam and Tuck for the afternoon, probably. Which meant that Danny couldn't have dropped into this dimension, or they would have thought their son was miraculously back. However, just to be sure … "Um, Danny didn't get back on his own?" I asked. Mom and Dad's guns whined. "Gyah! Don't hurt me!"

"How could he get back on his own!?" Mom said in her best Mom Voice. "You get right back through that Portal and find him!"

"Okay, okay!" Feeling a strong sense of déjà vu – and feeling a bit sorry for this world's Phantom when he got back to this dimension – I stood in front of the Portal and waited for Mom and Dad to calibrate it.

The last thing I heard before I went through the Portal was Dad saying, "He didn't seem quite right, did he?"

&

I wondered if my parents' bracelet could pull me back from being in the wrong dimension too late; I was already landing in yet another dimension, my feet hitting the ground softly.

The lab was once again occupied, but once again it was also thankfully normal; the Ghost Portal was working, full of swirling ectoplasm, and there were Fenton Inventions scattered everywhere.

Unfortunately, the people occupying the lab were my parents.

Dad looked up at my arrival from whatever he was working on. "Maddie! GHOST!"

"What?" Mom turned off her blowtorch.

"Gotta run!" I yelped, zooming towards the stairs.

"GHOOOOOST!" My dad bellowed behind me, and in a fit of brief panic, I forgot I couldn't turn intangible. I slammed forcefully into the door at the top of the stairs.

_Thud._ "Ow!" I slid to the ground, then sat up and reached for the doorknob, glancing back behind me even though I was seeing double.

Dad was pounding towards me, ecto-gun out. There was no way I was going to get out the door in time to not get nailed with that thing. I grasped my head with one hand, trying to focus and turn myself invisible.

Nothing happened.

Dad fired, and the blast hit me in the back, slamming me against the half-open door again. The door flew open and I somersaulted through it, ending with a totally ungraceful face-plant, my butt in the air. Now I was dizzy _and _embarrassed.

"Jazzypants! Watch out, it's a ghost!" Dad boomed behind me.

"Stay away from it!" Mom warned.

Jazz was in the room? This wasn't my dimension, but so far it was almost identical; maybe she'd help me out here too! I turned my head as I struggled to my elbows.

Sure enough, Jazz was sitting at the kitchen table, looking wide-eyed, a spoon of cereal halfway to her mouth.

Then she screamed. "AAAH! GHOST!"

Okay, so she _didn't_ know who I was. I was too disoriented to figure out how the heck that had happened.

"It's in the kitchen, Maddie!" Dad called, skidding into my vision. I floated myself off the floor and zipped around the kitchen table, making Jazz screech again and spill her cereal before I skidded between Dad's legs and the floor, then took off again for the front door.

"Oh no you don't, ghost!"

Mom was there; she fired at me with some kind of ecto-laser. I pulled up short and barely avoided losing a limb to it. "Gyah!"

All I wanted was to get out of the house! I zigzagged all across the family room, and my mom systematically destroyed furniture behind and before me as I narrowly avoided her laser. Finally, in a fit of inspiration, I flew past the windows; the laser shattered them.

"Stand still!" Mom demanded, and I laughed.

"I just wanted a way out, so thanks!" I answered, flying through the window and taking off at my top speed into the sky.

"You haven't seen the last of us!" Mom shouted after me.

"Actually, with any luck, I have," I muttered as I flew away.

&

I flew aimlessly for a few minutes high above Amity Park. Apparently I had lost my power of invisibility now. _Great_, I thought irritably. Being intangible when I arrived in different worlds was bad enough, but not being able to sneak away from my nearly-inevitable mom and dad was a hundred times worse.

This universe was a lot like my home universe, though; Jazz didn't seem to know who I was, but she was a pretty good actor when she tried. But where had _I_ been? Usually if Mom and Dad were shouting 'Ghost!' I would have already had my ghost sense go off and would have been around as Phantom in a flash. Er … no pun intended.

Was it a Saturday? Maybe I was still in bed? No; I still would have woken up for that ruckus. Maybe I'd spent the night at Tucker's house.

It was doubtful that my human half was in this universe, but at least here I had a clue where to start. I started for Tucker's.

_Wait … my parents never called me 'Ghost Boy'! They didn't even call me 'Inviso-Bill' or 'Phantom' or anything! They just called me … 'ghost' …_

At Tucker's, I peered in the window and found Tucker pulling on his shirt. Danny wasn't present.

I tapped on the window with a finger. Tucker looked up at me, then put on his usual red beret and opened the window with wide eyes. "Dude, Danny?"

"Yeah," I said with a quick smile. Okay, so I was half-ghost in this universe! "'Sup, Tuck?"

But Tucker was wide-eyed. "What're you doing here? Man, how long did it take you to fly all the way back here? Are you ditching school?"

I blinked. "What?" My house was only a few minutes away.

Tucker cocked an eyebrow at me. "Don't … you go to school in Wisconsin?"

"Wisconsin!?" I cried. I slapped my hand over my own mouth. "Uh … y-you mean I live with Vlad Masters?"

"You mean Plasmius?" Tucker said viciously, not looking very happy about it. "Vlad is gonna _kill_ you! What'd you do, hit your head? Why don't _you_ know all this stuff?"

"I'm not exactly the Danny you know," I answered after a moment, trying to absorb this. It had to be against my will, or Tucker would be angry with me, not Plasmius. I rubbed the back of my neck. "Um … I haven't, by any chance, visited recently, have I?"

Tucker shrugged, shaking his head. "Not that I know of. What do you mean, you're not exactly the Danny I know?"

"I'm from another dimension," I sighed, tired of explaining it. "I kind of lost human Danny in some parallel dimension."

"Oh, man. Cool!" Tucker's eyes lit up with the possibilities before he sobered. "I mean, you know, it sucks."

I smiled. "Nah. If the circumstances were different, it _would_ be cool." If I wasn't running around trapped in my ghost form, slowly fading away, with my human half lost … it would be _very_ cool.

"So … If I'd seen Danny recently, that would probably be your human half?" Tucker asked. "What happened? Did you use that Ghost Catcher thingie you used on me?"

I laughed. "No, no way." I remembered when Desiree had given Tucker a ghost half, and then I sobered. "Actually … if I'm in Wisconsin, how're things here? It seems pretty normal …"

"Well … it's pretty quiet, actually," Tucker said slowly. "Sam and I can handle a lot of the ghosts … why are we having this conversation with you floating outside my window?"

I glanced down towards the ground. "I dunno. Why are we?"

Tucker opened his window widely. "Come on in," he grinned.

&

Tucker was in the middle of telling me about the time that Mom and Dad traveled up to Wisconsin to stop a massive ghost invasion through the Plasmius Portal when I was suddenly pulled back home. I thudded to the floor, then stood up slowly, looking at Mom and Dad warily. Was this the dimension where me and my friends had all disappeared, or was this the one where only I had disappeared?

"So?" Mom asked. "Did you see Danny?"

And _that_ was my answer. I shook my head. "Nope … not there. Although that dimension was … a little too close to home." I rubbed the back of my neck. "Try something a little further away? Closer to the first one?"

Mom and Dad looked at each other, and Jazz cocked an eyebrow at me. "do you have a reason to think that's a good idea?" she asked.

"No … just a hunch," I sighed. "I mean, it's just as much a shot in the dark as anything else, right? Might as well try it."

Mom shrugged, and turned the dial on the remote control. "All right … done." She gestured towards the portal. "Whenever you're ready, Phantom." It was a surprisingly friendly tone of voice.

I wondered what Jazz had said to my parents while I was gone even as I spread myself through the portal yet again.

_Tbc_

_You're going to hate me for the next universe. Sorry this chapter wasn't very exciting, but it's all coming together … very very soon!_

_Thank you, reviewers: nathow111, anne avidreader, Evelyn Lucia, Missing Fairy, Nonasuki-chan, phantomphriend, Snea, FantomoDrako, Invader Yoru, Bluemoonalto, hydraling110, DP Fan, Pieling, HiddenAuthor, Sword on Fire, QueenLizzieBee, Unrealistic, Me-against-the-world, and Sasia93. You're all wonderful people!_

_Reviews are greatly appreciated. Until next time …_


	16. Attack of the Killer Garage Sale

**Chapter 16: Attack of the Killer Garage Sale**

I don't know how much later I woke up after Sam got me with the Plasmius Maximus, but I was getting hauled to my feet and someone was patting my cheeks. "Wake up, Fenton!"

"Whahuh?" I babbled, blinking groggily. Valerie's face came into focus. "Val …?"

"I told you not to call me that!" Valerie hissed, slapping her hand over my mouth. "You awake now?"

I groaned. My head was spinning, but yeah, I was pretty awake. "I wish I wasn't," I grumbled. "What's going on? Where are we?"

"Some kind of holding cell." Valerie sat up and I struggled to my elbows, looking around. We were in a stone room; the only door had bars on the window. She shoved my shoulder. "You sleep like a rock!"

Seeing as I'd only slept for a few hours since getting to this reality I figured that wasn't really a surprise, but I just glared at her and rubbed my shoulder. The last thing I remembered was Sam – Kobal – knocking me out with the Plasmius Maximus, but I didn't know how long ago that was. "How long was I asleep?" I asked.

Valerie shrugged. "Not much use for watches around here," she said.

I sat up all the way and looked down at my hands, trying to will them into invisibility. Nothing happened; apparently it hadn't been long enough. "Not long enough to get back my powers," I grumbled, putting my pounding head in my hands. "Wait … how did Sa—Kobal know to hit me with the Plasmi—the … power-zapper thingy anyway?" I looked up at Valerie.

Valerie gave me a blank look; I waved my hands in frustration. "She didn't know I was half-ghost! I didn't tell her! _You_ didn't get a chance to tell her. So why'd she zap me with that thing?"

"Maybe she saw you doing ghost-things when she invaded," Valerie shot back, scowling. "Man, I can't believe they got her! She's the last person I would've ever expected to get programmed."

She was also the worst possible person to get brainwashed, I supposed, except maybe Jazz and Tucker. I sighed, wondering if they got everyone in the sewers; I wondered if Jazz and Tuck were all right. I even worried about Dash. _If I'd had all my powers I might have been able to do something! _I thought, clenching my fists.

Valerie folded her arms across her chest. "Man, what are we going to do now …?" she asked wearily.

I shook my head. Even if I had all my powers there probably wasn't anything I could do to fix _this._ Everything was messed up in this reality – Vlad apparently ruled the world (or was working on it), Sam was brainwashed, my parents were dead (heck, _I _was dead), and now everybody was captured.

So that was when I had the most brilliant thought e_ver_.

_The Reality Gauntlet!_

Plasmuis couldn't possibly know that it existed. If he did then there wouldn't even be a Resistance. If we could somehow get to the Reality Gauntlet then we could fix everything in two seconds flat, maybe not even that long. But of course, figuring out how to get to the Gauntlet was going to be the problem.

I opened my mouth to tell Val about my totally genius idea when a key turned in the lock of our door. We both looked up to see Sam in the doorway, still wearing her Hunter suit, and she was holding the Plasmius Maximus.

"Not again," I groaned, but Valerie jumped to her feet.

"Kobal!" she roared, and threw herself at Sam. Now, I don't know the Valerie in this reality but she's a black belt in mine, and I bet she's one in this reality too because that was an _awesome_ kick she shot off. She got Sam right in the side.

Sam staggered, but before Valerie could follow up Sam jabbed out her hand and caught Valerie in the throat. Valerie gagged.

By this point I was on my feet but then a couple of ghost swarmed in to the room and grabbed my arms. "Hey! Let go!" I struggled without thinking; it was too weird to watch the Red Hunter beat up Valerie and it was weirder knowing it was Sam inside the suit. "Sam! Stop it!"

Sam was busy incapacitating Valerie, pulling her arm up her back in a way that made my arm ache to look at. "The Ghost King wants to see you," Sam said. "Take him on up."

"Leave Fenton alone!" Valerie snapped, wincing. "It's not even like he has anything to do with this! Urgh!"

Sam shrugged. "The Ghost King seems to think so." She made a gesture with her head and the ghosts dragged me outside the cell; I heard Valerie give a pained shout, and then the door of the cell slammed shut and Sam came out to join us. "First, some insurance—!" She zapped me with the Plasmius Maximus; I yelled at the shock. I wondered if that thing could permanently short out my powers after enough use.

"All right, tie him up and let's take him up," Sam said, tossing the rope to the guard ghosts. I groaned; I was getting really sick of being tied up.

&

And we're back to where this story began, aren't we?

"Well, well, well."

Plasmius looked down on me with a wide smirk, showing teeth. I couldn't help the shiver that went up my spine from the look on his face, still struggling with the ropes holding my wrists behind my back. "A mere human causing so much trouble …"

"He called himself Daniel Fenton," Sam informed her master as I shot a horrified glare at the traitor.

"His name is not worthy of my attention!" the Ghost King boomed. "Put him with the other rebels for now. We'll see what's to be done with him later."

My arms were grabbed roughly by the guards and I was dragged away …

"Wait! Did you say… Daniel Fenton?"

The ghosts dragging me off stopped at Plasmuis' question and Sam nodded. "Supposedly he's from another reality," Sam continued and I hissed.

"Sam!"

"_Really, _now," The Ghost King purred, sounding exactly like the Vlad I know. "Hm. Leave him with me for a bit, if you please?"

"Of course, my Lord," Sam said, bowing, and the ghosts let me go. I fell on my butt when they dropped me with a yelp, and Sam strode from the room. I watched her go. _Don't worry, Sam, _I thought, _I'm going to get the Reality Gauntlet and I'm going to get you back to normal!_

"You're the boy that almost made me lose the Crown of Fire," Plasmius oozed. I could hear him walking around me, and don't tell anyone, but I kind of almost wet my pants when I realized I was alone with Vlad Plasmius who was the Ghost King without any of my powers.

_If Vlad doesn't kill me first, _I amended in my head.

"I have to say," Plasmius continued, "I thought I recognized you then. But then again, it's been a very, very long time since we were face to face."

Had I met Vlad before I died in this reality? I stared at him with wide eyes. In my reality, I hadn't met him until I'd already become a half-ghost. After a moment I tried to think of a witty comeback but nothing came to mind.

"And of course," Vlad continued, "you were dead at the time."

I found my voice. "You mean Phantom," I said, putting two and two together.

Plasmius laughed. "Hah! Yes, I believe that was once my name."

My mouth went dry. (Well, it was already dry, but you know what I mean.) "Y—y-y-your name?" I stammered.

"Well," my evil future self mused, his mouth quirking, "one of them, in any case."

_I'm in a coma, _I thought. _Technus put me in a coma and I'm having a nightmare. This is just some really weird dream and I just _think_ it's another reality but this is just a really bad nightmare and I'm going to wake up and—_

"I remember that hero complex. It's all a little vague but for some reason I thought I had to be the _hero_," Plasmius-Phantom sneered. "Let me guess: your bumbling father accidentally sent you here?"

Well, that was Plasmius talking at least.

"Too bad it's the last reality you'll ever know," he continued. "You know, you haven't accomplished anything. It's only a matter of time until I rule the world. I'll just put you in with the ranks; it will be such sweet irony."

What was with villains and their stupid 'I've won and you've lost hah hah hah' speeches they always have to make? I was too freaked out to say it and thinking about too much stuff. This didn't track with what Sam had told me before. If I was a ghost with a hero complex then why hadn't I saved my dad from Skulker? Why hadn't I saved my mom from Vlad? When had I combined with Plasmius?

"Hey!" The Ghost King interrupted my thoughts by grabbing me by the shirt and hauling me off my butt and into the air, forcing me to be face-to-face with him. "I'm trying to gloat here! At least have the courtesy to listen!"

I squirmed in his grip and said the first thing that came into my head: "Phew, take a breath mint once in a while!"

Plasmius-Phantom glared at me, and I think he was about to something that would _really _hurt when the door of his throne room blew open. I mean, it totally exploded off the hinges. Plasmius dropped me in surprise, snarling.

And the culprit? "Hey! If there is any taking over the world to be done here, it will be done by _me_, Technus 2.0!"

Yeah.

Technus was lumbering through the door, or at least his leg was; he was taller than the ceiling and the whole fitting-into-the-throne-room thing wasn't going too well for him. He looked like he'd been through the closest Best Mart, Awesome Video Game Place, and maybe an Army base, and turned himself into the craziest mecha yet – and it would be pretty hard to top the time he took over our house and left it on the beach.

The Ghost King roared with fury. "My throne room! You _fool_, you dare to face the Ghost King!?" Plasmius-Phantom began to grow in size until he was breaking the ceiling too, two monsters facing each other.

"You look nothing like the Ghost King," Technus (2.0) snapped. "The Great Technus 2.0 does not hide! He merely bides his time and waits for his best opportunity! YOU would be the foolish one to think that this physical form is all of my might, for at this very moment, I have taken over all the satellites of this world and turned them into _gigantic lasers!_ And all of them are pointed at you!"

He was shouting out his plans again, but he was more than enough of a distraction for me at the moment. I struggled to my feet and ran, as much to get away from the falling ceiling as from Plasmius-Phantom.

I probably wouldn't have put my bets with Technus even in my own reality, but here, Technus clearly hadn't counted on facing off with all of the Ghost King's minions as well; he tended to forget the important details once he had built himself into a crazy conglomeration of technology. The skeletons and guard ghosts were already ganging up on him. I wondered how long it would be until my evil future self cut him back down to size in the back of my head while I ran through the destroyed doors and fled aimlessly.

I had to find a way to get into the Ghost Zone. My powers would come back sooner or later and in the meantime, as a human nothing could touch me in the Ghost Zone anyway. The Reality Gauntlet was in the Ghost Zone as long as the Guys in White hadn't found it, and once I had it I could fix everything.

I had to get back to FentonWorks and get the Ghost Portal working again. "But for starters," I panted to myself, "I have to get out of here!" I didn't even know where I was or how to get out! And it was really hard to run with my arms tied behind my back.

Ghosts kept flying all over the place around me but I didn't matter in light of the emergency that was Technus 2.0. The only path I sort-of knew through the building was the one that led back to my cell that I shared with Valerie, so after a moment of debate at a crossways I ran that way. Maybe I could get Valerie out too.

But to tell the truth, after a little bit I was just making wild guesses as to which way to go. Whoever made this building wasn't a big fan of windows – I didn't even know what floor I was on. Some of the ways were blocked off by debris. I started around a corner wondering if I'd been here before when somebody else came around the corner and slammed into me.

"Omph!" "Ow!"

I fell on my butt (again – my tailbone was really starting to hurt) and looked up to see Dash Baxter. "Fenton?" he asked, sounding lost. "What happened? I woke up in like some kinda jail cell and then there was an earthquake or something! Is this the Ghost King's lair or what?"

"Something like that," I groaned. "Help me up."

Dash lent me a hand. "Why're you all tied up?"

"It doesn't matter. Can you untie me?" I asked, turning my back to him. If Dash was at all freaked out by Valerie's news that I was a ghost back in the sewers, he didn't seem too bothered about it now.

"Yeah, sure. Oh man, I hope nonna the ghosts find us here," he moaned, picking at the ropes that had me tied up.

"… you're not worried that I'm going to turn on you or something?" I couldn't help asking.

"Nah. Kobal was the one that went all freaky on us, and you're just some geek. She knocked me out the second she got back!" The ropes loosened and I pulled my hands in front of me, rubbing my raw wrists. "Whadda we do now?"

"Now," I told him, "we go find Va—Keira. And then we're going to go fix everything."

&

So Dash and I proceeded to … be lost. I guess we must have wandered around the same corridor another three or four times. We hadn't seen another soul or even a ghost for a while, which was beginning to weird me out. "I've definitely seen that debris pile before," I grumbled. "We're just going in circles!"

"Well don't look at me! It's not like I know where to go!" Dash accused.

I opened my mouth to retort when there was a resounding crash as the wall behind me was reduced to another pile of rubble. I whirled to look and Dash shrieked.

It was a huge, hulking thing, chains hanging from its wrists and ankles and this ghastly white; it looked like the ogre thing I'd seen when I'd first gotten to this reality. "Oh crud," I gasped.

The thing roared at us, and man did its breath stink.

"Run!" I screamed, grabbing Dash's arm and dragging him back the way we'd come. The thing gave chase; it ran like a gorilla, using its long arms to help it along. Once Dash got his legs working again he quickly overtook me – obviously he was still in way better shape than me in any reality. I ran to keep up, but I tripped over some rubble; it looked like it was all over when suddenly the ogre roared with agony.

"Eat Fenton Ninetails, ghost!" shouted a familiar voice. "You're not getting my brother!"

"Jazz!" I gasped. I couldn't see her, but I could see the tentacles of the Ninetails wrapped around the ogre's neck as it struggled to break them. I staggered back to my feet and skirted around the legs of the monster to find my sister on the other side. "Let go of it and run!" I advised, grabbing her arm and leading her back the other way.

Jazz was dressed in all black and wearing the Fenton Specter Deflector belt, looking for all the world like a ninja. "Danny," she exclaimed as she released the Ninetails and ran with me. "I came here to help you guys! We have to go save everyone! I'll fight the Massive Monster and—"

Obviously this Jazz was just as uncreative with ghost names as my Jazz. "I've got a better idea," I told her. "I'll tell you later, okay!?"

"But Tray is in there!" she cried. "And everyone else! And what about Kobal, she's—"

"I know, I know!" I panted. "But I swear this will fix everything! How did you get away from the invasion, and how did you get in here--!?"

"How are you going to fix everything?" Jazz shot back.

"You know what?" I wheezed, tired after all that running. I could hear the ogre starting to chase us again, and a quick glance back confirmed the Massive Monster was after us. At least it wasn't after Dash, I decided, annoying as he was. "How about we run now, ask questions later?"

"Agreed," Jazz panted. She slapped an ecto-gun into my hands from her arsenal. "Let's get out of here and then you explain your plan. And if I don't like it, we're going back, okay?"

"Fair enough," I agreed.

&

So twenty minutes, one crazy rappelling adventure down the side of Plasmius' building, three crazy ghost fights, four blocks, and one smoking ogre later, we were sitting in an alleyway trying to catch our breath and I was explaining my plan. "So once we get the Fenton Portal working again, I go into the Ghost Zone, find the Reality Gauntlet, and then we activate it and I use it to make it like the last year never happened," I finished.

"This Reality Gauntlet seems like it's too good to be true," Jazz complained. "But then again, it's almost too crazy to make up. I guess you're probably telling the truth."

"Why would I lie about something like that?" I asked. I was crouching, hanging my head down and panting for breath.

"Well, if I were you, I might use a story like that as an excuse to get away and concentrate on getting back to your own universe," Jazz pointed out, wiping sweat off her forehead.

I'd almost forgotten about that in all the excitement. "I don't even have the first clue how to get back," I admitted. "You guys are my best shot – you and Tray – so shouldn't I help you? Besides, you're my sister in any reality, and S—Kobal and Tray are my friends. I'm not gonna just abandon you guys," I pointed out.

Jazz didn't say anything for a while; I looked up at her, and she was looking at me with a really weird face. "What?" I asked irritably.

"Nothing," she said lightly. Then she smiled. "You know, your plan needs some work. Do you even know where to find the Reality Gauntlet? And our old home is the most heavily guarded place in Amity Park, you know – getting in is going to be hard, and getting the Portal started is going to be even harder."

"We're just going to have to make it wor—or, you know, you could just shoot me with a Fenton Bazooka," I suggested. "That'd get me into the Ghost Zone."

"But getting you back out would be a lot harder," Jazz pointed out. "Besides, it only works on gho—oh."

"Yeah." I grinned ruefully.

For a moment we were quiet. I wondered how Technus was faring with the Ghost King, which reminded me –"So how did you escape the invasion?" I asked.

Jazz grinned, touching the Specter Deflector. "The Fenton Belt kept them from grabbing me, and when this suit is juiced up it's an invisibility suit. Ran out of power a while back, though." She sighed. "And I got into the Ghost King's complex when the ogre broke down the wall. Sorry about it chasing you, by the way, that was kind of my fault. I sort of made it mad and lured it into the wall."

"It was your fault it went berserk? Nice." I grinned.

Jazz stretched. "Well, I guess we should get to work on your plan. I don't want to leave anyone with the Ghost King too long, even if the Reality Gauntlet will make it like this didn't happen. Somehow."

"I've seen crazier things," I assured her.

"And so have I," said a third voice.

Okay, I'll admit I kind of screamed like a little girl in surprise, because that voice was definitely—

"Who are you!?" Jazz demanded, pointing her ecto-gun at whoever-it-was even as I whirled around on the intruder.

"Vla—"

"Ah!" Vlad Masters interrupted me, putting up a finger. "Don't use my name, unless you want to fight off another horde of the Ghost King's minions." He stood in the mouthway of the alley, looking as impeccable as ever in his double-breasted suit.

"You _are_ the Ghost King!" I hissed, not lowering my weapon.

"Tut tut!" Vlad sneered at me. "While I will admit my ghostly throwoff is quite a powerful one, I am certainly not him – just as _you_ are not him, Daniel Fenton." He shifted his attention. "Now Ferina, put that thing down, it's me, Petrov. I don't believe we've had the pleasure of meeting in person."

Jazz' eyes widened and she slowly dropped her arm. "Petrov …?"

"Indeed," Vlad said, his smile somewhere between benevolent and mocking. "Now, if you two would kindly come with me: I have someone who would like to see you, and this … Reality Gauntlet … intrigues me very much. I think we can work out something that will be a little less dangerous than using the Fenton Portal to get to it."

_To be continued_

&

_Author's Notes: yes, it really is to be continued. I'm finally finishing this story, years after starting it. For those of you who are still reading, thank you! For those of you who are new readers, I hope you enjoy! And for those of you who are not reading this message because you are not reading this story any more, I'm really sorry it took me so long to write more._

_I must say thank you in particular to isadorathegreat, whose kind review really made me want to finish this work. We're a little over halfway through it, so I figured if I can just bite the bullet and write the rest I'll feel satisfied._

_Reviews are appreciated and help me write more, and I will try to respond to all of you!_


	17. The Ultimate Enemy

**Chapter 17: The Ultimate Enemy**

_One encounter with my parents and half an hour later in the Ghost Zone …_

"Wait. I'm a pelt on WHOSE wall!?"

&

"Nope," I sighed, my suit still smoking. Mom put aside the Fenton Fire Extinguisher with a sigh.

"What happened?" she wanted to know.

"Um … do I really have to explain?" I was still blushing. I couldn't believe I'd let myself get hit by one of Skulker's weapons (although I blamed the fact that I was being pulled back to my own dimension at the time for it). Fortunately, I hadn't actually _seen_ my ghostly form nailed to some wall in Skulker's bedroom – that would have scarred me for life. But I could believe it had happened. The first time I'd encountered Skulker, I'd been so weak. Dumb luck was all that had saved me.

I was beginning to wonder if there was any dimension where things had gone _better_ for me rather than worse. So far, all I'd found were unhappy endings.

"Better luck next time," Jazz comforted me.

"I wish," I grumbled under my breath.

&

I fell out of the portal and floated gently to the floor. In this reality the basement of FentonWorks was completely devoid of life; the Fenton Ghost Portal stood silent and unused and the lab was dark. What little I could see was only because of my ghostly glow, and there weren't any inventions down here. Everything was covered with dust and the walls were scorched as if ectoblasts had almost taken the room apart.

It took me about thirty seconds to realize that I was in the right reality. I don't know how to describe how I knew; I just _did_, and I immediately felt better. I flew up the stairs and shot out of FentonWorks; I had one hour to find my human half and I wasn't about to waste it.

As soon as I got outside I could see this reality was as miserable as the one where Freakshow still had the Reality Gauntlet (even if everyone had been laughing there). The sun was low in the sky casting long shadows and making the broken windows, pockmarked street, and general destruction that had befallen the area look even more sinister than it might have. I couldn't help slowing down and staring; what had happened _this_ time? And did I really want to know?

Maybe I wouldn't have to find out. The problem was, no one was around and I didn't know the first place to look for my human half. In movies they always talked about 'ever-widening search patterns' and stuff, but unless I found someone who had met with the rest of me, it was going to take a lot longer than an hour to figure out where I'd gone, so to speak. Oh well. I'd just come back as many times as I had to.

Of course, my life doesn't get to be all that boring for all that long. Jazz told me once that saying 'may you have an interesting life' is a curse, and boy was she ever right. I started to fly upwards, figuring I'd start with a bird's-eye view of Amity (I figured a ten-story-tall Freakshow was probably up there with the worst of anything I could encounter in any reality), when I saw the totally-impossible-to-miss rocket-firing heat-blasting fist-smashing mecha bashing its way through downtown.

"IT WILL TAKE MORE THAN THAT TO DEFEAT ME, TECHNUS 2.0!" the humongous green-and-black mecha shouted.

I couldn't believe it. It was Technus, the ghost who had started all of this – or at least this universe's rendition of him. Or maybe it _was_ the Technus I knew, as I remembered belatedly that he had been sucked away at the same time as my human half.

An ectoblast that was roughly two stories wide came from somewhere too low for me to see from this distance, and technology flew everywhere off of Technus' conglomeration.

Now, here's the thing; for as long as I could remember without it becoming a hazy mist – that is, from the moment I zapped myself in the Ghost Portal – I just can't seem to stay out of danger, human or ghost. Shoot, that time that I'd split myself with the Ghost Catcher my human half ended up in the one amusement park that Technus decided to attack. So, that's my excuse for flying to where the action was. I shot across Amity, and as I got closer I could see that there were tons of ghosts flying all around Technus – Walker's goons, skeleton ghosts crowding around his feet, and these mean-looking white ogre-ghosts that I figured I didn't want to face off with on the ground. However, the ghost that most caught my attention was the one that was currently holding a huge ectoplasmic ball of energy in one hand and uprooting a building with an arm of pink power in the other.

"_Plasmius!?"_ I gaped, pulling up short. The first thing that went through my head was that this was some kind of weird reality where instead of _me_ protecting Amity, it was Vlad. But fortunately the rest of my brain caught up and I realized how ridiculous that idea was. I mean, if Vlad had replaced my role here (and he wasn't a badguy intent on stealing my mom and killing my dad) then Amity would probably be glowing and pristine.

I didn't have time to think about much more than that because as if saying Vlad's name had turned a switch in their heads, every ghost that wasn't Technus or Plasmius suddenly turned to look at me.

"Uh … hi?" I said hesitantly, waving my hands placatingly.

"Ghost Child! You have returned to your powerful state! Help me!" Technus 2.0 called to me.

Okay, so this Technus thought that Danny Phantom was going to help him. Also he thought I didn't have my powers and clearly didn't know that half of me still didn't – or at least not all of them. Probably my universe's Technus. That didn't help this scene make much more sense.

Technus, distracted by my arrival, was suddenly smashed by the building that Plasmius had uprooted, and immediately after that he was bowled to the ground by the ectoplasmic blast Plasmius followed it up with. Then Plasmius suddenly looked up at me.

There was this weird _moment_ where we were locking eyes and I felt like – well, a little like I did when I merged with the Phantom that had been captured by the Guys in White. There was a moment where for some reason I felt a connection with him. But why would I feel that with _Vlad!? That is definitely an 'ew', _I thought, just before I noticed a few things about him.

One: he had flaming hair. Two: he had a ridged cape. Three: he was wearing the Crown of Fire.

"Oh crud, you're the Ghost King!?" I cried out in horror.

"Deal with this nuisance!" Vlad shouted at what I guessed were his minions. At first I thought he was talking about me, but the goons and skeletons turned their attention back to Technus. "I'll deal with _this."_ Then Vlad smiled at me.

Okay, let's review: Vlad Plasmius has like six more powers than I do even in my universe, and he's better at all the powers we share. In _this_ universe he was the Ghost King, _and_ I'd already lost my powers of invisibility and intangibility.

I turned tail and fled.

"Funny how you just keep popping up!" Vlad shouted behind me. I didn't have time to wonder what that meant because the next thing I knew I was slamming face-first into his chest. He grabbed me by the front of my suit and held me so close to his face that I had to go cross-eyed to see him. "If I didn't know better, I'd say I was being _haunted_ by my old self!"

My _old _self!?

Laughing uproariously as if he'd made an awesome joke, Plasmius blasted me away with an ectoplasmic beam that was roughly the size of a house. I went flying across the sky for what felt like miles as I struggled to get back control of my trajectory, but before I could manage that Plasmius teleported above me and nailed me in the back of the neck with a double-handed punch. Two seconds after that I was kissing concrete.

This wasn't Vlad's style, I realized through a haze of stars. My brain tried to put the pieces of the puzzle together but there wasn't enough time to even think about how to defend myself. I rolled onto my back in time to see a huge ball of ectoplasmic energy blocking out my vision, and the only reason I wasn't vaporized on the spot was because of my instincts; I put up a shield at the last possible moment without thinking and the energy slammed into it, sending shockwaves down my outstretched arms and dimpling the asphalt around me. It took every ounce of strength to hold the energy back until it finally wore itself out.

Funny how the mind works, though. While I was throwing all my physical effort into pushing back the ectoplasmic ball my head worked out what Vlad was talking about. Number one: I kept 'popping up' because Plasmius had met my human self at least a couple of times. I hoped he hadn't been torn apart molecule by molecule, because Point Number Two was—

"You're my evil future, too!? Geez, pile it on why doncha!?" I shouted in pure frustration, shooting up into the air. It didn't occur to me to wonder why it was Plasmius-Phantom and not Phantom-Plasmius, not at that moment; I kind of wish it had because my evil future was just as inclined towards long-winded Evil Guy speeches as the next villain and I could have stalled him in a somewhat less painful way.

"My pleasure." Plasmius-Phantom sneered from where he floated a hundred feet away from me – and a copy of him backhanded me across the back of my head. I spiraled towards the ground, stunned; I never got my bearings back to defend against a knee to my guts that put me airborne again, or the uppercut that sent me another mile into the sky. "It feels good to use my powers properly again! It's been too long!"

I went on a long, wide arc across Amity before I managed to stop myself. My jaw ached and if I'd needed to breathe I would have been gasping for air, but as it was I just tried to not look hurt. … I'm not sure how well that succeeded, by the way, because I couldn't get myself to unwrap my arms from my aching stomach.

Plasmius-Phantom was right there, of course – I mean, if my usual evil future self wasn't bad enough, this one was the _Ghost King._ And now that I had a moment to breathe (so to speak) the full realization of what that meant hit me.

I put up my arms in the shape of a 'T'. "Time out! Time out, wait a second," I gasped.

"Do you think I play by the rules?" Plasmius sneered, wrapping his huge, beefy hand around my tiny neck. I grasped his knuckles ineffectually, windmilling my legs and kicking at him in a desperate attempt to free myself. "Explain this to me," my evil future self said entirely too calmly. "I'm here, and you're here. And that would normally be impossible. But if I can venture a guess, you aren't the same Daniel Fenton I just met with."

I would have answered him, but he was squeezing my neck so tightly I couldn't say a word. Panic started to overwhelm me.

"So, where did _you_ come from? Did you come to try to _stop _me?" Plasmius-Phantom laughed at himself again. "I threw down Pariah Dark! I have done more than that ancient fool could ever imagine! No ghost can stand up to me and in time every human will bow to me! Do you really think you can even lay a _finger_ on me!?" The Ghost King threw back his head and laughed.

_I don't want to have anything to do with this!_ I thought. What kind of horrific nightmare was this reality, anyway!? How the heck had my human self survived this place this long!?

"Hah!" Plasmius-Phantom recovered from his laughing fit. "You fool. Did Clockwork send you? I'll beat you within an inch of your afterlife and send you back his way."

And so saying that, my evil future sent a wave of electricity through my body so intense that if I'd still had a human half, I would have de-transformed and collapsed. Being full ghost, or something like it, I didn't have that luxury. In fact, I nearly flew apart at a molecular level; it took all my strength to hold my physical form.

I oozed out of Phantom-Plasmius' hand as soon as his grip relaxed and fell to a rooftop a dozen feet below us, halfway an ectoplasmic mist. It took me almost a minute to coalesce; the Ghost King waited patiently.

It gave me a minute to think, though. I was at a severe disadvantage, as in, I was pretty sure it was hopeless. But my evil future didn't seem to have killing me (or destroying me) in mind, so the worst he could do was hurt me a lot. It would suck, but at long as I didn't lose the communicator on my wrist I only had to endure this for an hour. I could do that … at least, I hoped so. When I reformed, I made sure the homing device thingie was hidden under my glove this time, just in case Plasmius noticed it.

And I came up swinging. I rolled onto my back and shot off an ectoplasmic blast with a shout. Whether or not Vlad was expecting it, I don't know, but he blocked it casually. "It will take a lot more than that, boy!" he sneered, but I wasn't around to listen; I took off like a shot across the horizon.

"Running away? Hah! Maybe I should just let you!"

"That sounds like a good idea," I muttered to myself – before pulling up short as Plasmius-Phantom appeared in front of me.

"Or, maybe not," he smirked. He sent off another overpowered ectoplasmic blast at me; I had just enough time to attempt to counter, but my own blast was practically eaten alive by Plasmius' and I was thrown earthwards. This time, the building I hit the side of wasn't enough to stop me. I went through the wall, bounced off the floor, and rolled head over heels until I fetched against the far wall of the office room I'd landed in.

_This is hopeless!_ I thought, coughing. My back and side, which had taken the brunt of the impact, hurt more than I'd thought was possible for someone who didn't technically have a ribcage. My eyes squeezed shut, I reached around my middle, and what I felt made my eyes snap back open. A chunk of wood was lodged in my back! Considering that most people would be dead after breaking in a concrete-steel-wood-paneling wall, I was getting off pretty easy, (well, okay, technically I _was _already dead but you know what I mean) but I couldn't help a sob of pain. I braced one hand on the floor as I felt at the panel lodged in my skin; I got a grip on it and pulled it free.

I had another one of those 'would have de-transformed' moments. Actually, I really would have gone for 'able to pass out'. Luck of the dead, I guess. The end of the wood plank – the whole thing was about a foot long – was covered in ectoplasm, and I lay there shaking from reaction.

"Hiding, are we? You know, I wonder; are you trying to lure me somewhere? If you _really_ wanted to run away you could, you know. It would only be a matter of time before I found you again, but I can't track an invisible ghost despite my awesome power." Plasmius-Phantom chuckled; his voice was getting closer. "I'm giving you a _hint_, you know!"

_Stop playing cat and mouse with me!_ I thought, furious and terrified at once. I wanted nothing more than to beat this guy to a pulp, but what I really needed was something or someone to help me do it. Last time I had defeated my evil future self I'd had a slew of Fenton Inventions to work with; when I fought Pariah Dark I had the Fenton Suit and a ton of ghosts, even if it did almost kill me. _The Ghostly Wail?_ It might catch him off-guard, but I couldn't see the Wail doing more to Ghost-King-Evil-Future-Guy than pushing him back a few feet and maybe blowing his hair out. Plus I hated to think what it would do to _me _without a human half to fall back on.

_Okay, _I thought, _Plan A is: stay in this building or get into the sewers and run away where he can't see you. Plan B is: Ghostly Wail if he does see you and hope for the best._ I floated shakily off the floor and wobbled out of the destroyed office, down the hallway, and down the stairs, picking up speed as I went.

What I did not count on was Plasmius deciding to expedite the process of finding me by _blowing the whole building up_.

The whole building blew sky-high. I went right with it, covering my face with my arms as debris pelted me. My ascent was stopped short by a hand grabbing my ankle; I peeked through my fingers, certain I wasn't going to like what I saw.

Plasmius grinned down at me. "I could do this all day--!" He punctuated the last word by swinging me around in a circle and throwing me across the sky again.

'Day' was a relative term now; the sun had dipped below the horizon. I let out a yelp as I was thrown. I caught a glance of Plasmius-Phantom waiting for me a hundred feet away and I had a fit of inspiration; I fired an ectoplasmic blast off into the skyline over Plasmius' head, which slowed me down just enough for me to get a breath and scream.

I just caught a glimpse of Plasmius-Phantom's wide, shocked eyes – I guess even as the Ghost King he hadn't gotten the Ghostly Wail yet – before I squeezed my eyes shut.

When I opened my eyes again, panting with exhaustion, I found I was right: I had blown Plasmius-Phantom's hair out.

_And the Crown of Fire off his head._

Plasmius' hair leapt back into flaming eruptions but his face contorted. "The Crown of Fire!" He twisted, frantically looking for it, and leaving himself wide open for a sucker-punch.

I totally went for it. The Ghost King's head whipped back with the blow. "Augh! You little --!" Plasmius took a moment to shove his hand into my chest and shoot me point-blank with a rail of blue fire, and I went flying for the umpteenth time, clutching my scorched chest and trying to right myself.

If you're wondering why I didn't go after the Crown of Fire, here's why: number one, when I returned to my dimension, I wasn't going to be able to take the Crown of Fire with me. I mean, if I couldn't take back another _me_ there was no way I was taking back a totally foreign object. Number two: even if I'd wanted to go looking for that artifact, I didn't have a chance.

&

At somewhere near the apex of my parabolic flight across the sky (the only thing I know about parabolas is their shape. Don't ask me what the mathematical equation of my flight was) I winked out of existence. The next thing I knew I was tumbling to the floor in my parent's lab, bleeding, bruised, and shaking with exhaustion.

"Oh my gosh, Da—Phantom!" Jazz was at my side before I could speak. "What hap—"

"I have to go back," I panted. When I went back I'd reappear in my parent's lab and Plasmius wouldn't know the first place to look for me. "He's there – Danny is there. Send me back!"

Jazz grasped my arm. I don't know how messed up I looked but it must have been pretty bad. "You need to rest," she protested.

"I don't know if there's enough time for me to rest," I protested. If Danny had met with Plasmius, and he couldn't find me, would he go after my human half just because? Who knew what my evil future self thought – I had a hard enough time understanding him when he was mostly _me_, much less when he was mostly Vlad. "Mo-Maddie, send me back right now!"

I thought for sure my Mom would be on my side, but even she looked doubtful. "And if you fly apart from stress?" she asked, her mouth set in a thin line. "Who will save Danny then? Is he in immediate danger?"

"I … I don't know," I admitted. Mom pursed her lips. Dad gave her a confused, concerned look.

I couldn't believe this. I looked at the Fenton Interdimensional Portal; it looked the same as ever.

"Fine," I snapped, and threw myself through the Portal before anyone could stop me.

_To be continued_

_Author's Notes: Thanks to Rakahn, Blue Flyhight, isadorathegreat, hawkflyer667, Mystical Tears, New Ghost Girl, YumeTakato, and kiomori for reviewing the last chapter! If you haven't already received a reply they will be coming soon._

_Next chapter: who's Vlad been hanging with?_


	18. Memory Blank

**Chapter 18: Memory Blank**

"_I think we can work out something that will be a little less dangerous than using the Fenton Portal to get to it."_

I halfway lowered my ecto-gun as Vlad talked. I didn't trust him – I wouldn't trust him in a million years – but I wondered if things were a little different in this universe. After all, in my universe Phantom-Plasmius had formed when both of our ghost halves were pulled out of our bodies, so maybe it had worked the same way in this reality. That human Vlad had been regretful, reluctant – almost good, in a way.

On the other hand, Phantom had been able to transform into a perfect copy of me. I wouldn't have had to worry if my powers hadn't been shorted out, but right now I had no way of knowing.

Jazz, on the other hand, totally believed him. Her eyes widened and lit up. "Really? You have another way into the Ghost Zone!?"

"I didn't lose _everything_ when the Ghost King came to Wisconsin," Vlad promised with a smarmy smile. "But we should be going. Time is of the essence, is it not?" He gestured in the direction of the street.

Jazz grabbed my free hand. "Come on, let's go!"

I yanked my hand free. "How do we know he's telling the truth? H-How do you know he's not the Ghost King in disguise?" I demanded.

"He called himself Petrov," Jazz pointed out.

"But Sam was captured!" I protested. Jazz made a horrified face – even Vlad beyond her flinched. "He knows all the secret names, Jazz. Yeah, JAZZ," I said loudly, angry at the way it made Jazz grimaced at her own name. "And how can you trust Vl--!"

Jazz slapped her hand over my mouth. "Stoppit!" she hissed. "Just stop it!" She kept her hand crushed to my mouth as she leaned in close. "We have to be careful, just in case. Don't you understand, Danny? Petrov is the one that practically _founded _the Resistance, so _please …_"

I scowled – and hiccupped a breath of cold air. Jazz gasped and yanked her hand away as I involuntarily shivered. "What was that?" she asked with trepidation.

"My ghost sense," I mumbled back. "There's a ghost somewhere nearby—"

"Put your head down!" Vlad abruptly ordered, half-running deeper into the alley. At the same time SkullTech flew by, his two ghostly parts arguing with each other about Technus 2.0. We all slowly stood back up once he'd passed. "If you're done arguing now, Daniel?" Vlad asked of me icily.

I wasn't sure if I was jumping out of the frying pan and into the fire or not, but it wasn't like I was going to accomplish anything here; Jazz would go with Vlad even if I refused, and I didn't know how to go about starting up the Fenton Ghost Portal by myself. I needed the Plasmius Portal to get into the Ghost Zone to retrieve the Reality Gauntlet.

"Okay," I said reluctantly.

"All right. I have a transporter not far from here," Vlad informed us. "Let's be off--!"

The good news was, my powers were back online – and I didn't have an y reaction to Vlad specifically that I could identify. The bad news was, I wasn't sure if I wanted Vlad to know about my powers. That was the only thing that stopped me from phasing us all through a bunch of buildings instead of forcing us to sneak along the street at a glacial pace (we kept having to hide) while Technus 2.0 was gradually destroyed in the distance.

Jazz didn't pester me about it until we'd crossed four blocks. "Can you use your ghost powers to help us?" she whispered to me. "It would be nice to be invisible or something right now."

I shook my head. "My powers aren't all working yet," I lied under my breath. If the Ghost King dropped on us then I'd reveal myself, but until then …

"There it is," Vlad pointed at an alleyway. We ran across the street and ducked into the dark alley, cast into shadow by the sun that was dropping below the horizon. The only source of light was a white glowing circle on the pavement.

"What is that?" I asked in confusion.

"The transporter. Naturally," Vlad said with a smirk. "Step on, children. We have places to be."

Jazz followed eagerly; I was far more reluctant for obvious reasons. If this thing really teleported us somewhere, we could end up _anywhere._ But Jazz motioned for me to hurry up and Vlad gave me an expectant stare, and I sighed and stepped into place.

Vlad joined us and pressed something on his wrist; the white circle we were standing on started to hum, a low-pitched sound that made my chest feel like it was vibrating. I pressed my hand against my heart, looking upwards in case a ghost appeared.

A white and black streak passed overhead in an uncontrolled arc, yelling all the way in a familiar voice.

My jaw dropped, and at about the same time all thought was wiped from my head as white light engulfed us.

&

The feeling of teleporting was a lot like how it felt when I did it as a ghost, on the few occasions I'd managed it. It was like going really fast and then suddenly the wind stopped and I was where I had planned to be in the first place – but this time I didn't know where I was going. When the light faded away I staggered and tripped over my own feet; I saw Jazz falling on her butt. Vlad just smoothed down his sweater-vest and stepped off the transporter calmly.

We were in a lab that was pretty familiar to me – filled with beeping computers, instruments that looked remarkably like ghost torture devices, and stainless steel walls – and most importantly, the Plasmius Portal, glowing pink on the far wall. I pushed up on my hands and knees.

"Maddie," Vlad said, "I'm back."

I had a lot of questions. For one, how did that transporter work? Okay, maybe I didn't want the answer to that one because I probably wouldn't understand it. Two, had I _really_ just seen Danny Phantom go flying through the sky like he was having a bad day? And three, had Vlad really named his computer Maddie in this universe too?

And then Mom stood up on the other side of the lab, wearing a familiar jumpsuit and looking just the same as she always did. "Vlad!" she exclaimed. "Did you bring them?" She looked past Vlad and our eyes met.

I stared. Mom stared. Then Mom must've done her own teleportation trick because the next thing I knew I was being crushed by a hug. "Danny!" she cried. "Oh, Danny …"

She burst into tears. I was too startled to respond, and immediately after that too guilty to tell her the truth, that I was from another reality and had my own Mom to go back to. The hug lessened a tiny bit as Mom cried, "And Jasmine! Jazz, Jazz, come here, sweetie …"

"M-Mom?" Jazz said, her own voice tremulous. I couldn't turn my head far enough to see her, still squeezed tight against my mother, but I found my voice.

"She's real, Jazz," I croaked.

In a few seconds Jazz was behind me and Mom was holding us both so tight that breathing was difficult, but different reality or not, it felt really nice to just be sandwiched into a hug like that. Mom kissed my temple; her lips were warm. And I felt bad about it, I really did, but doubts began to enter my mind as the shock wore off. Had Vlad just made an ultra-advanced robot of Mom? Or was this a clone? I thought of my unstable 'cousin' Dani and wondered if I'd just misled my sister and given her false hopes of being reunited with the one remaining member of her family.

Mom finally released us, obviously reluctant. I struggled for words. Should I break the truth? But before I could get up the nerve to tell her, Vlad coughed into his hand, drawing our attention. "While I hate to break up this touching reunion, there are things to be done. Can you stand to catch up later?"

"Yes, of course," Mom said, wiping her eyes and pushing her hair back into place. Jazz sniffled and wiped her nose on her sleeve. I touched her elbow and smiled at her; she smiled back with tears in her eyes.

Vlad smiled again and I couldn't decide if it was smarmy or not. He was standing close enough to touch Mom, but he made no move to do so. "Maddie," he said, "the children here think they may know of a remarkable ghost artifact that could push back the Ghost King in one fell strike. It is called the Reality Gauntlet. Have you heard of it?"

Mom's face was still blotchy from crying. She sniffed loudly. "I'm not sure. I don't think so … but I'll contact the Guys in White to see if they have. What is it, Vlad?"

Vlad wasn't calling Mom any weird pet names, and Mom wasn't calling Vlad anything weird either. But Dad didn't seem to be around … was it really possible that my mom was secretly working with Vlad all this time and Vlad hadn't done anything to her head so she thought she was in love with him? Or without them dating legitimately like in every other universe where my Dad wasn't around?

_This is awesome! _I thought.

But on a more serious note, it was my turn to talk; everyone was looking at me, anyway. "Um," I said, clearing my throat. "It's like – well, it's a gauntlet, like the ones knights are always wearing in movies. But it has these three gems in it, and when you press the gems in the right order, the Gauntlet can control reality and totally change it to whatever the person wearing the Gauntlet wants," I explained.

"That's … that's incredible," Mom said, a small frown creasing her face. "Are you sure this is real?"

"It's real in—" I broke off. I'd almost said 'in my reality', and if you didn't know I was from another universe it sounded like I was crazy. "Um, yeah, it's real. I…"

"I believe him," Jazz put in, grasping my shoulder.

"As do I," Vlad added. "It's alluded to in the Tales of Guilliespurge." Mom cocked an eyebrow at him, and Vlad smiled indulgently. "In the Ghost Writer's lair, Maddie." When Mom's face cleared, he continued, "Why don't you catch up with your children? I will speak with the Guys in White." He crossed the lab and left.

I wanted to follow, mostly because even if Vlad was looking more and more like a good guy I still couldn't make myself trust him. But Mom and Jazz were jumping at each other for hugs again, and I figured I'd probably get straighter answers from Mom for all the stuff I didn't understand than I would from Vlad or Plasmius-Phantom or heck, anyone else in this reality.

"I'm so sorry I didn't get in contact with you sooner, Jasmine," Mom was saying, smoothing Jazz' hair back and kissing her forehead. "We lost all contact with Amity for so long! You hid yourselves very well," she praised.

"We weren't trying to hide from _you_, though!" Jazz protested. "What happened? When did you end up with Petr—Mr. Masters?"

I wanted to know the answers to all those questions too, so I hung back and tried to be kind of invisible without, you know, actually being invisible.

"Shh, honey." Mom smiled. "I'll tell you what I know. Mind, some of it I don't remember myself – Vlad told me later." She sat back on her heels from where she had kneeled to hug Jazz and paused. "… Mm, well, the story starts when I was kidnapped …"

Mom's story was long and Jazz kept interrupting with questions. Basically, shortly after the Fenton Ghost Portal had been opened Dad was killed by Skulker – which I knew, from my own reality, was working for Vlad. In my reality he got distracted by me because I was so unique. In this reality, there wasn't anything to distract him so he got his job done. I felt sick.

Not long after that Mom was kidnapped. Now, I don't know when I appeared as Danny Phantom the ghost – but I must have since Sam talked about me and my evil future self existed – but it must have been after that. Mom was taken here – no surprise, right? – and met Vlad Plasmius, who seemed to have a ghostly obsession with Madeline Fenton. According to Mom, it was because the ghost Plasmius had overshadowed Vlad. _Good job covering yourself, Vlad_, I thought. Jazz clearly didn't remember – or maybe didn't realize – what Vlad had said back in the alley, when he'd admitted Plasmius was his throwoff. I knew the truth, but I didn't feel like there was a point in correcting Mom now.

So Vlad Plasmius had stuck a chip in Mom's brain. Jazz gasped at that part. She must have been amongst the first people Vlad had tested the mind control chips on. Mom said she didn't really remember what happened after that, not for a long time, but this is what Vlad had told her: Eventually a ghost calling itself Phantom had appeared and had fought with Plasmius. Phantom pulled Plasmius out of Vlad's body and tried to overshadow him, and the resulting ghost was so strong and nasty that Vlad could do nothing about it. It had gone back into the Ghost Zone and Vlad had thought to never hear anything about it again.

Vlad then set about figuring out how to get the chip in Mom's brain out. Mom let Jazz, then me, feel the space behind her ear; there was a little square bump there. "He wasn't able to take it out, but he did disable it," she said with a smile.

_Did he?_ I wondered. This part of the story didn't match up with Sam's. Where _was_ Sam in this story, anyway? Sam had said that Vlad operated on her to take the chip out of her brain. Why couldn't Vlad have done the same to Mom? Did he really disable it, or …?

"Danny, are you all right?" Mom interrupted her own story to ask.

I jumped. "Oh, uh, yeah, yeah, I'm fine. Keep going," I said eagerly.

Mom did. When she finally got her mind back, it was after the invasion of the Ghost King – which was the massively powerful Plasmius-Phantom, who rode with the Fright Knight at the front of his army as they took over the then-active Fenton Ghost Portal and then Amity Park. Mom had naturally been worried about Jazz, her only remaining family member, but the town was quickly cut off. Mom had gone into Amity three times anyway ("Don't tell Vlad") in search of Jazz but they'd already gone into hiding.

Finally Sam came into the story. Vlad had operated on her to remove the chip in her brain and sent her back with the Hunter Suit she so proudly wore. Vlad had proceeded to send her supplies and technology until the war had reached here, in Wisconsin, and he was cut off from communication with Amity.

"So why didn't Vlad take the chip out of _your _head?" I finally got a chance to ask.

Mom looked saddened. "Danny, I don't suppose you were told … that most of the time, adults go crazy when the chips are removed? Or they die? This is the best that Vlad could do," she said sadly.

Jazz looked at her feet. "The disabler Tra—Tucker and I came up with didn't even work on adults."

"Oh, honey, I'm sure you've done your best. From what Vlad tells me, it took hours of work to disable the chip without damaging my mind."

Embarrassed, I looked away. I felt stupid for asking the question now.

And then Mom looked up at me. "And Danny … I didn't even know you were still … I'm so sorr—"

Mom felt guilty for not knowing I was alive. I blurted out the truth without thinking. "I'm not, Mom!"

Mom startled; I clapped my hand over my mouth for a moment, starting to blush. I drew up my shoulders defensively as I continued, feeling ashamed. "I'm … I'm from another reality," I said lamely. "I just ended up here on accident. Your Danny is …" My throat closed up on the absolute truth, though. Did Mom really need to know that Plasmius-Phantom was half _my _ghost?

"… oh," Mom said. Abruptly she was all scientist. "Well, I suppose that makes more sense. There's no way a human could have survived a month in the Ghost Zone, which is the only place you could have gone that we wouldn't have found you …"

_I came back as a ghost, _I wanted to say. _And for once I was a full ghost that wanted to be a hero, if my evil future self can be believed. And if that's true, I bet I came here to save you, Mom. And I guess I kinda did, at the expense of going totally crazy._

"Sorry," I said, looking at my toes.

I was a little startled when I felt Mom's arms around me. "It's okay," she said quietly. "Even if you aren't the son I raised, you're still my son." I felt her mouth in my hair. "And it was very brave of you to tell me the truth."

I smiled a little.

Mom pulled away and cocked her head, looking down at me. "Have you figured out how to get back home?"

"No," I admitted.

"Well, don't worry," Mom said, putting on a winning smile. "If this Reality Gauntlet really works, then as soon as this is over I'll put all my effort into getting you back!"

I smiled back. If Mom couldn't do it, nobody could.

"Mom, I have a question," Jazz said. "Um … how did Mr. Masters know to find us?"

"Oh! Well," Mom said conspiratorially, "I found you." She winked, walking over to one of the blinking computers. "I was using this machine, which …" She went off into a technological ramble, which Jazz seemed to follow, but left me totally lost. My mind began to wander.

Why had I thought I saw my ghost in the air before we were teleported here? I was part of Plasmius-Phantom in this reality. I couldn't think of a single good explanation. I considered asking Mom, but that would have required revealing I was half-ghost and also letting Mom know that the ghost called Phantom _was_ my ghost, and I didn't really want to do that. Well, the half-ghost thing worried me a lot less, but if Phantom still existed in this reality, then … I was giving myself a headache.

Luckily Vlad rescued me from the whole dilemma. He walked back into the room. "Fear not," he said pompously. "The Guys in White have not yet retrieved the Gauntlet, so it's still in the Ghost Zone and within our reach."

"I'll run a search for a powerful energy signature," Mom said immediately. "Something that strong must give off a strong ectoplasmic sign." She rushed to another computer and started punching buttons.

And Vlad looked at me. "Daniel," he said patiently, smiling just slightly, "May I have a private word with you?"

My heart jumped a little in my chest, but on the plus side, I noticed that my ghost sense hadn't gone off when he came into the room. Vlad wasn't a ghost; Plasmius-Phantom really was totally separate from him. I nodded and followed him out of the lab and into another stainless steel corridor.

Once we were there Vlad abruptly grabbed me by my shirt and pressed me up against the wall. "Boy," he said flatly, "What are you playing at?"

I could have phased free, but I played along. Plasmius scared the pants off of me, but Vlad without powers wasn't nearly as intimidating. "What are you talking about?" I asked, my voice a low hiss. The effect was kind of ruined by my voice giving off a puberty squeak. Darn it.

"Don't play dumb," Vlad snapped, his voice also low. "You, my boy, are a ghost."

Oh. Right. That little detail.

"Half-ghost," I corrected, figuring it couldn't hurt to give that away now that Vlad was admitting he knew I had powers. Vlad had hinted he knew that Plasmius-Phantom was half my ghost anyway. "What gave it away?"

Vlad's smile was creepy. "I have no reason to tell you. I've been puzzling over how you could exist since I laid eyes on you in the alley. Your ghost tore the ghost out of me and became the thing terrorizing the world!"

"Yeah, I know," I said, glancing away for a moment out of guilt. "But that's not _my _ghost, not exactly. I'm from another reality, where I'm just like you." I poked him in the chest, then, for effect, phased my shirt out of his hand. I stepped sideways and slipped away from the wall while Vlad blinked at his empty fist. "And I know you killed my dad, and I know you kidnapped my mom. And I'd tell Mom right now if you were being weird with her, but since you're not, I'm going to keep it a secret. But if you do anything, and I mean _anything_, that messes this plan up, I tell her the whole truth."

Vlad looked at me for a long moment. "And what is this plan, Daniel?" he asked, his voice neutral.

"_I'm _going into the Ghost Zone and _I'm _retrieving the Reality Gauntlet," I told him. "Because I still don't trust you."

"I see. Very elaborate," Vlad said, his mouth quirking. I didn't like that smile much. "And since you have taken the time to explain yourself, I will tell you my ground rules now." He leaned in very close, but to his credit he didn't try to grab me again. "I have so much anti-ghost technology in this laboratory that my ecto-guns have ecto-guns. And if you are foolish enough to do anything that displeases me, I will reduce you to an ectoplasmic smear on the floor. And don't think your hybrid status will protect you, because I am the best equipped to deal with such a _unique _creature in the entire world."

"You wouldn't do that in front of Mom," I accused.

"I'll just tell her you were a ghost masquerading as her son," Vlad said with a smile. "And she'll believe me." He straightened. "Still, it's a relief that you are no Ghost King plant." He stuck out his hand. "Good doing business with you, Daniel Fenton … or should I say 'Phantom'?" He smirked.

I looked at his hand as if it were a trap for a second, then shook it. He was approaching me as if I was an equal, kind of, and it was really weird. "You don't scare me," I told him.

"Do you have a reason to be afraid of me?" Vlad asked.

Before I could answer, he turned away and walked back into the lab.

_To be continued_

_Author's Notes: thanks to hawkflyer667, Flaming Water, Kiomori, Nylah, YumeTakato, Negima Uzumaki, and jc4ever11 for reviewing chapter 17. I know there wasn't much action in this chapter but I promise the next one will make up for it. Bet you forgot that Danny had no idea his ghost was running around without him!_

_Reviews are appreciated and replied to. Thank you!_


	19. Kindred Spirits

**Chapter 19: Kindred Spirits**

I thudded to the floor in the reality where my human half was, trembling with exhaustion. Maybe I should have taken a little while to recover after all, but despite the beating I'd taken, I felt better in this reality – more whole, in a way, just knowing I was near the rest of myself. Taking slow, deep breaths that were completely unnecessary but felt good, I laid there, trying to gather my thoughts.

Then I felt a familiar tug. Reacting quickly, I grabbed at the bracelet on my arm, wrestling it off my wrist; before it even hit the ground it disappeared in front of my eyes. Apparently my parents had decided to try to make my decision for me. What were they going to do, I wondered, slap me back in cuffs and force me to rest? I could run away to the Ghost Zone and see if Clockwork would help.

But without the cuff on, I realized belatedly, I couldn't help my human half even when I found him. The whole point was to take him back! I thudded my fist against my forehead. "Good job, Phantom," I berated myself, grimacing. "Now you're both trapped. Idiot!" I rested my head against the floor and groaned aloud. My parents probably thought I'd run away. I was obviously starting to lose my brain at the same time as my powers.

My thoughts were interrupted by something falling on my back and rolling off with a metallic clatter on the floor. I leapt to my feet, startled and ready for a fight, before I realized it was … the cuff. A note was attached with tape. I looked around suspiciously and pulled the note off the cuff, only able to read it because of my ghostly glow.

_Phantom,_

_Okay, you win. You have six hours._

It was in my mom's handwriting. I sighed with relief at the discovery that they had not assumed the worst before blinking in wonder. They were actually assuming the _best _about _Danny Phantom, _that I had gone back after Danny and not just tried to run away?

Jazz must have been awesome. That was the only explanation I could come up with. It didn't matter too much because even if they'd assumed the worst, I had no intention to let them down, but it felt good – surprisingly good – to be trusted. I wondered if I'd have a chance to tell the rest of me the good news, or if it would all just stay in his head. I snapped the bracelet back on my wrist.

I stayed there in the basement of FentonWorks for a few more minutes. I needed a lot more rest and I really needed to be able to transform into a human again, but I didn't know if there was time. After a bit I roused myself and left the house again.

I'd only been gone from this reality for about fifteen minutes, provided the time difference was the same here as in my home universe; the sky was dark, and since the streetlights weren't functioning it was hard to see very far at all. Clouds had gathered overhead, blocking out most of the stars in the sky.

It occurred to me to check FentonWorks for my human half. It was the most depressing five minutes of my life. The house was totally destroyed; I mean, it was nearly gutted. The kitchen was still standing but the floor above the family room had fallen in, which meant my parents' bedroom was scattered on the first floor. My own room was covered with a year's worth of dust, but it was creepily untouched – like I'd been living there one day and disappeared the next. The upper part of FentonWorks, by which I mean the part that turned into the Blimp and Jet and stuff, was half-melted away and smelled very vaguely of rotting ham.

I decided to leave the house. I wasn't dumb enough to fly up high this time, though; I stayed low to the ground, looking around me almost wildly. I didn't have my ghost sense to warn me about other ghosts showing up, and I didn't have a clue where Plasmius-Phantom was. I was lucky my parents had dragged me back after an hour before; if Plasmius had six hours to beat on me, I really would be an ectoplasmic smear on the pavement.

_If I was me – um … if I were human in this reality, where would I go? _I wondered. Well, I'd probably go into hiding. I didn't do well with ghosts when I didn't have powers. If Jazz was right, then my human half was slowly gaining back his powers as I lost them. That would give me confidence, but that didn't mean I'd necessarily go up against my Evil Future Ghost King self. Apparently I wasn't hiding in the abandoned FentonWorks, although I didn't know why not. Where would I have gone, then?

As I left my house again, I found out why my human half probably wasn't hiding there. The second I flew through the broken windows, Walker popped out of the ground, accompanied by no less than ten of his prison guards.

"Unauthorized entrance to the Entry Home!" Walker roared, pointing a finger at me. "That's against the rules!"

"Oh, geez," I groaned. "Walker, I don't have time for you."

"You'd better _make_ time, punk! Five _thousand_ years of time, to be exact!" He poked me in the chest. "Get him, boys!"

The ghost guards dove at me. I didn't feel up to another high-speed chase through the streets of Amity, and there were better things to do with my time. I drew a deep breath. "Leave me ALOOOOOONE!" My voice turned into a Wail; Walker was thrown back, and his prison guards had no hope of standing up to it. Everyone went tumbling down the street, some half-phased through buildings or slammed up against the crumbling walls of the houses. I recovered from the scream and discovered my hands were trembling, and the place where I'd had a plank of wood stuck through me was sending shooting pains down my back. "Let's try not to do that again," I muttered to myself before darting off towards the business district, hoping to stay out of Walker's way for a while.

The sound of exploding pavement behind me made me turn my head so fast that I gave myself whiplash. What I saw, however, totally baffled me. It was Valerie, or this world's Valerie, flying down the street on a smoking jet sled, bent over at the waist for speed. That part wasn't confusing. The confusing part was the fact that hot on her heels was … Valerie. Or at least, it was _somebody _in the Red Hunter suit, pursuing Valerie as if she was, well, _me._

I gawked helplessly until it was almost too late to get out of their way. Valerie was mostly looking over her shoulder, but she looked up in time to see me as I dove out of the road, and she abruptly pulled up short, her eyes wide. The Red Hunter behind her had to barrel roll out of the way and almost crashed into the buildings on the opposite side of the street before stopping. "Phantom?" Valerie shouted.

I jumped at the name. "Er, that's, um …" I stammered. The Valerie I was familiar with had a _really _big problem with Phantom. Also, technically I didn't exist (at least, not as I was) in this reality. "Hi?"

The Red Hunter was looking in my direction – I think. Hard to tell with the visor. I looked for the nearest exit that didn't involve flying up over the city; it involved flying between the two girls. My chances weren't good.

"I thought you were gone for g—" Valerie started, but she ducked when the Red Hunter abruptly fired at her head. "Hey!"

The Red Hunter grabbed her visor and pulled it back, and in the darkness it took me a moment to realize it was Sam. My jaw dropped. "Danny?" she asked, her eyes wide and shocked. "Where did you go?" Her voice was full of hurt. "What happened to you? Where have you been!?" Her voice grew angrier and angrier.

Oh boy, I had no idea what Sam was talking about. I felt even more lost than before; at least with Valerie and the suit I could assume it was Technus piloting it or something, but now things just made absolutely no sense whatsoever. Was I even in the right reality? Was this a small shift to the left of the one I'd meant to be in? Or had Plasmius just kept it a secret that he was half me? "Um," I said in a show of genius.

"I can't believe this," Valerie groaned, slapping her forehead. "After all this, even with a chip in your brain, you still get all googly-eyed over this ghost!?"

"Shut up, rebel!" Sam snapped, something going cold and flat in her eyes. She fired her weapon again, and the jet sled under Valerie's feet exploded.

Call me crazy, but the whole hero bit is _not fair_. It was a good twenty-foot drop to the ground from where Valerie was floating, and I couldn't let her fall, even if she hated my guts and wanted me torn apart in every reality. I made a split-second decision and darted forward.

"No!" Sam cried, her voice spiraling upwards. "Don't help her! Don't—!"

It was too late, and this Sam was obviously crazy if she wanted me to just let Valerie hit the ground. I caught Valerie in my arms and was rewarded with a fist in my nose. There wasn't exactly anything to break there, but my nose dribbled ectoplasm anyway. "Ow! What was that for!?"

"I don't need your help, ghost! Put me down!" Valerie snarled.

"I will as soon as we're not anywhere near the person who's apparently trying to fry you!" I protested.

"That was a stupid decision!" Sam shouted behind me, her voice steely again. "Stupid!" And then she fired her ecto-weapon at _me._

I dodged and took off down the street at top speed, forcing Valerie to clutch my hazmat suit for dear life. "I told you to put me down!" Valerie screamed in my ear.

"Stop shouting in my ear!" I shouted back. Sam was hot on our heels. I dodged wildly and Valerie turned slightly green. "I don't even know what's going on here, but I'm sorry already about the ghost dog, okay? I'm _sorry_!"

"What the heck are you talking about?" Valerie demanded. I made a hairpin turn around a corner.

That had never happened here? Huh. How did Valerie know me, then? "Never mind!" I barrel-rolled across a street, made a ninety-degree-angle turn, and flew vertically over a wall before darting down the other side. I heard Sam curse behind me; she had to slow down to imitate the maneuver, and I took the chance to double back towards where we'd come from, hoping Sam wouldn't expect it. I'd never wondered what kind of tactical mind Sam had before, but the only thing I'd ever played against her was board games and Doomed, and she kicked my butt at both; I had no idea if I could outwit her at combat.

"What the heck are you playing at, Phantom?" Valerie snapped when I slowed down a fraction. I had to conserve myself so I didn't break down to a molecular level, and without intangibility Valerie was getting really heavy, really fast. My arm ached and my back was starting to make my vision wobble. "You disappear for almost a year and come back and save _me?_ How stupid are you?"

"Pretty stupid," I admitted. Ectoplasm was dripping off my chin from my nose. It tasted like having a mouthful of pennies. Valerie gave me a dirty look and I scowled back. "Look, I seriously have no idea what's going on here. I'm from another dimension. I- augh," I groaned, slowing further.

"Put me down here," Valerie directed, pointing.

I went around the indicated corner and put Valerie down on her feet, then gracefully tripped over my own and staggered into the wall. My back immediately let me know about it, whiting out my vision for a few seconds. "Bad day," I gasped.

When I could see again I looked at Valerie, who was oddly silent. She was giving me a weird look. "Other dimension, huh?" she asked with a weird tone.

I quirked an eyebrow, but Valerie didn't say anything so I shrugged a little. Trying to explain the whole half-ghost thing to Valerie would probably be useless, so I just cut to the chase. "Okay, just … have you seen Danny Fenton around anywhere? About my height, black hair, blue eyes – the kid you never talk to at Casper High that Dash is always beating up on?" Valerie started to give me a strange smile as I asked, and my voice trailed off. "What?"

Valerie barked a harsh laugh. "Seriously? Hah!" She shook her head slowly. "Is the Danny you're looking for half-ghost?"

I blinked. "Um, yes?"

"Yeah, I've seen him." Valerie's mouth twitched, like she was laughing at something private that wasn't very funny. "But you're too late. Last I saw Danny, Kobal was taking him to the Ghost King."

_What!? _I swear my back spasmed at the tactile memory of facing the Ghost King. "He – what? Really? But – he's alive," I said. I knew he was. He had to be. I just _knew._

And who the heck was Kobal?

Valerie just shrugged. My apparent death had really broken her up, hadn't it? It annoyed me. "I don't know," she said. "Why're you looking for him?"

I let the identity of Kobal go. "I … I'm taking him back home. His parents are looking for him."

"Uh-huh." Valerie's tone was full of doubt. I scowled. Why did I keep ending up with people who hated me or distrusted me? Before I could bring this up, Valerie continued. "Well, lucky you; I'm going back for him and the rest."

I blinked again. "You- huh?"

"I said," Valerie repeated as if to an idiot kid, "I'm going _back_ to _get him out._ Along with everyone else the Ghost King captured, so you can come with me. And if you have a problem with that plan—" she turned and reached through the brick-and-mortar wall behind her, and pulled out a Fenton Bazooka. "—Then you can just go back to the Ghost Zone where you belong."

I was kind of busy gaping at the fact that Valerie had just reached through a solid wall. Was she half-ghost here too or something? "V-V-Vale—"

She powered up the Bazooka. "Shut up right now or—"

"Okay, okay! Geez," I grumbled, putting up my hands. "I was just wondering how you – uh – reached through the wall like that."

"Oh, that. Just a hologram," Valerie smirked. "I'm not like Danny or you, I'm not part _disgusting._ So are you coming or do I send you running home?"

"I'm coming," I said hastily. I waited until Valerie had powered the Bazooka down again before daring to continue. "Um … mind if I ask why you were fighting Sam like that?"

Valerie flinched. "_Kobal_," she said pointedly, "Is not on my side anymore." And with that, she turned away, strapping more weapons onto her belt.

_Sam is Kobal? _I wondered. _Why's her name Kobal? And … why the heck was Sam taking me to the Ghost King!?_

"Let's go," Valerie snapped, turning back to me. She gave me a once-over and scowled. "I'd have you carry me there but you look like you're about to fly apart."

Did I really look _that_ bad? Still? I knew I still hurt but I should have been healing by now. "Gee, thanks," I said sarcastically, before waving her on. "Lead the way."

&

The trip was quiet except for when we ran across ghosts. Valerie, hauling along the Fenton Bazooka, didn't hesitate to send them all to the Ghost Zone upon first sighting. I did my best to help my reputation with her by firing ectoblasts at any ghosts that she didn't get right away, but Valerie didn't seem to notice and it was starting to take a lot out of me. I was trembling slightly from head to toe by the time Valerie pulled me around a corner and pointing to a ten-story building that was built like a bunker, with no windows or visible doors. "That's where everyone is being held," Valerie told me in a harsh whisper. "Bottom floor is the holding cells. Anyone that's still in there we bust out or die trying, got it?"

"Uh, okay," I said doubtfully.

Valerie snorted at what she probably assumed was my lack of bravery. "Phase me in."

"I can't," I told her. Valerie glared at me and I waved my hands helplessly. "I really can't! I can't go intangible."

"What kind of ghost are you!?" Valerie hissed. If she had any more threats to dole out, though, I didn't get to hear them, though, because we were interrupted by a familiar roar of engines and the whine of a charging weapon.

It was Sam-Kobal—the Red Hunter. "Throw down your weapons, Valerie, or get every bone in your body broken," Sam threatened, pointing a mean-looking two-handed gun I'd never seen before at us.

It kind of bothered me that even as she spoke, ghost skeletons – yeah, like the kind Pariah Dark had commanded in my reality – were crawling out of the ground.

"You first!" Valerie snapped, reacting faster than I could. She fired off the Bazooka, and maybe it was meant to suck ghosts into the Ghost Zone but the direct blow packed enough punch to send Sam careening across the sky.

I didn't have enough in me for another fight, not really, but Valerie wasn't going anywhere and I couldn't leave her behind, either. Sometimes I wonder what would have happened if I had just gone charging into the building Valerie had indicated, but I'll never know: I charged my fists with ectoplasm and stood back to back with Valerie, ready to fight.

Sam got back control of her sled and stood again, glaring down at us. "… Phantom," she said slowly, "step aside. Valerie's not on your side."

"… She's more on my side than you are," I answered, but I was a little uncertain. I just wanted to get back my human half and go home – that was _all._ The politics here were all weird and I didn't have time to understand it. "What happened, Sam? Why are you working for Plasmius—woah!" I ducked just in time as Sam fired off a shot.

"Don't speak the Ghost King's name!" she snapped. She drew a deep, calming breath. "I don't want to fight you."

"Sam," I sighed. "Me neither."

"So step back."

"Can't do that either," I said quietly.

"Don't make this difficult!" Sam screamed.

I flinched, but I powered up my fists even more, even though the effort made my knees shake. "Sorry, Sam," I said, and shoved her off her sled with a well-placed ectoblast. The seven-foot fall to the pavement would hurt, but lacking in choices I figured that was the best option.

The ghost skeletons took that as their cue to attack. I shot up off the ground and took potshots at them while Valerie blasted them back, sending six or seven of them to the Ghost Zone with each blast of the Bazooka. I also took a second to blow Sam's jet sled up – it couldn't hurt to slow her down.

But even though the ghost skeletons were slow and couldn't fly, there were a lot of them, endless numbers, it seemed like. I stayed right over Valerie and watched her back from the sky where they couldn't get me. Things were going fine for about a minute, which was when Sam must've gotten back her wind; a blow from an ecto-gun sent me flying back into the brick wall at our backs.

My back exploded with pain and my vision went white; I might have screamed, I don't know. I collapsed back to the pavement, still unable to see from pain. My ears were ringing. I grasped at my back as I struggled to get up, and my glove was immediately slick with ectoplasm.

I really wasn't healing. It may have only been just over an hour since I'd been impaled by wood, but I shouldn't have been bleeding still and all the other scrapes and bruises should have already been fading. I was losing my ability to recover. The clock was ticking on my time to find my human half.

Valerie was shouting something at me. _No time to worry about that, _I thought as my vision started to clear. I had to take it one step at a time, and at the moment that step was fighting Sam and the ghost skeletons with Valerie. I staggered back to my feet and fired at the blurry green glow in front of me.

"About time! You gonna make it?" Valerie asked over the roar of battle.

"I don't know," I gasped in answer, unable to think of a clever quip or a quick lie. "What the heck is wrong with Sam!?"

"Don't worry about that now," Valerie ordered. "Just take her down and I'll—"

With the people who were around me I should have seen what came next, but I have to admit I was totally startled. Two things happened at once. First of all, Sam abruptly hurtled over the heads of the ghost skeletons, lunging for either me or Valerie, I didn't know whom.

Second, Tucker swooped out of the sky with a battle yell, caught Sam around the waist, and the two of them went flying over our heads to roll clear of the battle somewhere behind us.

"Holy—was that Tucker!?" I shouted.

"Would you shut up and fight!?" Valerie demanded.

"Hold your fire for ten seconds," I answered, and I erected a ghost shield in front of myself and Valerie that stopped the ghost skeletons in their tracks. "I can't hold this for long, but—Tucker, is that you!?"

Tucker didn't answer. I turned to look as Valerie touched the ghost shield in surprise. Tucker was wrestling Sam to the ground with surprising strength. "This is for your own good, Kobal!" Tucker grunted once he had her pinned.

He pressed a gun to her temple and pulled the trigger.

I jumped and screamed like a little girl, my voice going up an octave in horror. "Tucker!?"

But Sam's brain wasn't splattered across the pavement, even though she did go limp. Tucker sat back up with a sigh of relief, lifting Sam's wrist and tearing her glove off to reveal something that looked like a watch. He ripped it off and smashed it with his fist.

"Way to go, Tray!" Valerie shouted. I blinked at her, and Tucker finally looked up with a tired smile. His face was very pale.

"Wha—what the—what just happened?" I stammered, completely lost. "Did you just kill Sam?"

"Would you _stop_ calling her that!?" Valerie demanded.

"Tray," Sam slurred. "Y'thanks'n'go'wha."

"She's _alive?_" I gaped.

Tucker seemed to take me in, then. "Dude … Danny?" His eyes widened.

"We need to get her someplace safe," Valerie said. "Phantom, you think you can keep up that shield?"

"Uh – uh, sure," I stammered, looking back at it and taking a moment to make sure it stayed strong. The skeletons scratched at it but they didn't seem to think of phasing through the ground or the walls around the shield. I wanted to touch Sam and confirm to myself she was, you know, not dying, but I couldn't move either.

"Good." Valerie put down her Bazooka and went to the manhole cover a few feet behind us; she grunted with effort, but opened it. "You know the emergency location, right?"

"Right," Tucker confirmed, lugging Sam to her feet. Sam staggered in Tucker's arms, but she was moving her feet, and she wasn't bleeding from a hole in her head. I wondered what Tucker had done to her. Tucker took a moment to smile wanly at me. "Missed you, dude," he said. "We thought you'd been blown to smithereens a while back. Guess you can explain later, though?"

"Erm," I said.

"No time for that now," Valerie said, starting down the manhole into the sewers. "Pass me Sam."

I was straining to hold the barrier now. "Hurry," I urged. Tucker helped Sam down into Valerie's arms, and after a few seconds Valerie shouted something and Tucker hurled the Bazooka down after her. "All right, you next," Tucker said, pointing down the hole.

"Uh, no, you," I answered. I wanted to come – I did! But I still had to look for my human half in that building. "I'll catch up later."

"Leave him!" Valerie shouted.

Tucker looked torn; I helped him out by giving him a shove with my free hand. He half-fell into the sewer hole. "Take care of Sam!" I told him. "I guess. Anyway, don't go shooting her in the head any more, okay?" The shield flickered. "Get out of here!"

Tucker said nothing. He pulled the manhole cover back over his head, and at the same time my shield failed. I didn't need to deal with these things any more, though; I leapt up to fly away.

And fell back to the ground.

_I lost the power to _fly_!? Can things get any worse, really?_ I staggered back to my feet and backed away from the skeletons, looking back and forth for an escape.

I shouldn't have asked if things could get worse, even in my head, because as I backed myself up against the bricks, trying to muster up the energy for another Ghostly Wail to make a path to safety, a blur shot across the sky and filled my vision and slammed me back up against the wall. My vision whited out again and I lost all feeling in my legs; the only thing holding me up was the fist in my suit. I know I cried out that time because my attacker started laughing as I hung limply in his grip.

"Welcome back," sneered my future self, shoving me viciously into the bricks. "Your teleportation trick was neat, but it was easy to track you. You really need to learn to keep your mouth shut." He lightly slapped my cheek with the last four words.

I grimaced, but didn't struggle. I didn't have the energy to. The Ghost King laughed. "So worn out already? Well, that's fine. I can't be bothered with you anymore; there are things to be done, people to destroy. One of my better conquests just went offline. You wouldn't happen to know about that, would you, Daniel?"

"I dunno what you're talking about," I slurred, clutching his fist. I wasn't even lying.

"Well, Daniel," Plasmius-Phantom cooed, "You and I are going on a little field trip. I've had enough of Clockwork meddling in my plans, so you and I are going to visit him." He thrust out his free hand and a portal to the Ghost Zone opened up to the side of us; I remembered that power from Phantom-Plasmius. He pushed his face right up against mine. "Doesn't that sound like fun?"

Witty banter escaped me. I spat ectoplasm onto his nose.

"Ugh! You little--!"

"Ha ha," I laughed in a monotone.

With a snarl, Plasmius hurled me into the Ghost Zone, blinding me with a flash of green light.

_To be continued_

_Author's Notes: Thanks to Rakahn, New Ghost Girl, Kitty Kyinsky, YumeTakato, ShiroandFubuki, Secret-spy-guy, hawkflyer667, Nylah, Flaming Water, BluFox15, and Kiomori for reviewing chapter 18! I know I haven't replied to any of you yet but I have an excuse: I was out of town and had no internet. I hope you enjoyed this chapter! Next chapter: Human!Danny (can we really say he's human still?) goes after the Gauntlet._

_Reviews are appreciated and replied to._


	20. Frightmare

**Chapter 20: Frightmare**

Arguing for going into the Ghost Zone alone was a losing battle with my mom and Jazz.

"I am _not_ abandoning you in a dimension filled to bursting with the very creatures we are fighting to defeat!" Mom exclaimed.

"Mom knows how to operate the Ghost Zone Zipper, and you don't," Jazz pointed out. The Ghost Zone Zipper, by the way, was basically the same thing as the Specter Speeder – it just inherited a different name here. Also, it didn't have a cup holder.

If I had to go into the Ghost Zone with _someone_, I wanted it to be Jazz, who knew about my ghost powers – until I remembered that it was more advantageous to be human in the Ghost Zone anyway. I didn't have any of my offensive powers still. I relented at length. "Okay, okay. But Vlad stays here."

Mom gave me a curious look. Jazz didn't seem to think anything of it. "I'll stay here with Mr. Masters," she volunteered. "That way if something happens you'll have a good troubleshooting team." She looked up at Vlad with so much respect in her eyes that I made a gagging face, not caring if Vlad saw. Vlad kept his mouth shut but the smirk he gave me told me he still thought he was superior in every way. I glared back.

"I can do this on my own," Mom said, but Jazz clapped me on the shoulder.

"Come on, Mom, Danny is the only one that knows exactly what this Reality Gauntlet looks like and how it works. You need him."

That wasn't _exactly _true. For starters I had no idea what the correct gem sequence was; we'd activated the Gauntlet in my reality totally on accident. I also didn't know if the gems would be with the Gauntlet or if we'd have to go on some kind of crazy side trip to find those, too. But if it would get me into the Ghost Zone with Mom, I was all for it.

"All right," Mom agreed with a heavy Mom Sigh, the kind that says 'I'm agreeing for now but that doesn't mean you're right'. Jazz flashed me a smile. "I've set up the Ghost Zone Zipper to follow a powerful ecto-signature, but it may not be the right one. There's a few in particular I would like to follow up on. It may take a while."

Mom had tracked down five study-worthy ectoplasmic signatures in a Zone made entirely of ectoplasm in less than fifteen minutes. I told you my parents work fast when they want to. "It's worth it," I promised. And I clung to that as I strapped myself into the Zipper next to my mom and we flew off into the Ghost Zone.

We were really quiet for a long time. Nothing looked familiar about the Ghost Zone (well, except for the big purple football in the rear-view mirror), but nothing looked _un_familiar either; it was all just green and purple and black, and very creepy. Mom kept wringing her hands on the steering wheel. I was kind of hoping to avoid any kind of conversation whatsoever. I knew what Mom would want to talk about – it was the same thing everyone else wanted to talk about: what it was like where I came from.

"So … Danny …" Mom started. I slumped a little in my seat. "You know, Jack once sent the house into an alternate dimension."

I looked out the window. "Yeah?"

"Mm-hm." Mom glanced at me. "I never did find out what it was like."

Mom hadn't been home for that, just like in my reality. I guessed Mom was hoping this would prompt a story from me. I just didn't know what to say, though. I already felt bad about having to tell Mom I wasn't really her son. So I flaked out and changed the subject. "The Ghost Zone's really empty."

I wasn't just making things up. In my reality there were ghosts floating all over the place and it never took long to find some random ghost floating around, be it ectopusses or ghost bears or Skulker. But even though I didn't have a watch, I felt like we'd been flying for a while without seeing even one ghost.

"Many of the ghosts are out in the real world, honey," Mom explained. "It may not be all that wonderful for humans any more, but I suppose any place is less gloomy than here."

"I guess so." I shrugged. "Um, any idea how long until we get to the first ecto-signature?"

"Perhaps half an hour," Mom answered idly.

We were quiet for a minute, the conversation dying between us. I felt my eyes starting to drift shut; it felt more peaceful here in the eerily quiet Ghost Zone than anywhere else in this universe. But before I could sleep, an alarm on the Zipper's dashboard began blaring; I jerked to attention. Mom punched a button and the alarm shut off. "What's happening? What's going on?" I asked.

Mom was frowning at a display of glowing green dots and waves that I couldn't make heads or tails of. "A very strong ectoplasmic signature just appeared in the Ghost Zone," she explained. "It's moving, so it's probably a very powerful ghost. The Zipper is just warning us that it's coming this way."

I sucked a deep breath. "Shouldn't we get out of its way, then?" I asked.

"I'm already on it, honey." Mom smiled at me and pulled a lever. "Are you buckled in?" I nodded. "All righty! Hitting the afterburners!" She floored the pedal under her foot, and the Zipper took off at what felt like six hundred miles an hour. I was shoved back into my seat, my breath stolen. "That will … oh dear. It seems to be following us."

"Great," I groaned.

"We'll throw him off our tail," Mom promised, and then she proceeded to show that she could drive like Dad – as in, breaking traffic laws, speeding laws, and the laws of physics. I clung for dear life to the plush seating of the Zipper as we flew up, down, right, and left at breakneck speeds. At least I could take comfort in knowing that we'd have a hard time crashing into anything since as humans, we were like ghosts in the Ghost Zone.

"Vlad's calling," Mom notified me, and pointed to a set of headphones swinging wildly from their hook on the dashboard. "Care to answer?"

"Not really," I told her. "I'm gonna be sick."

"The barf bags are under the seats!" Mom said cheerily. She was probably having the time of her life. "We'll just call him back then!"

I seriously was going to be sick, and not just at the thought of hearing Vlad's smarmy voice. It's one thing to fly this way when I'm a ghost – it's another thing entirely to fly like this when Mom or Dad's in charge of the wheel. I reached under the seat as the Zipper gave another terrifying lurch, and the air in my lungs turned ice cold. I exhaled a fog of mist. "Mom, where's the ghost we're trying to avoid?" I shouted, my nausea abated by a sudden burst of adrenaline.

"I can't check the radar again until we stop the Evasion Maneuvers," Mom informed me. But halfway through her sentence, the alarm started blaring again.

I clutched the seat, sitting up again in a rush. Mom clucked her tongue and made a hard right. I ended up jamming my cheek against the window next to me.

And I found myself face-to-face … with me.

To be more specific, I was face-to-face with Danny Phantom, and Phantom wasn't looking so good. Ectoplasm slicked his back and chin and he was struggling with none other than Plasmius-Phantom, the Ghost King.

Phantom was futilely trying to kick the Ghost King off of him, dangling from his grip like he couldn't stay afloat on his own. His gaze swept past me before he did a double-take, and for some reason his expression lit up before changing to white-faced horror. "Danny?" he asked.

I didn't have enough time to react to anything. I gaped openly at them both.

"Well, well, well, a two-for-one-special!" The Ghost King sneered, punching Phantom across the face hard enough to knock him senseless. "Madaline _and_ Daniel wrapped up with a bow!"

Mom screamed and slammed on the brakes. I bounced off the seatbelt so hard I think I gave myself whiplash. Plasmius didn't have time to react and, still flying at the same speed as the afterburners, became a speck in the distance in less than a second. "Plasmius!" Mom shouted.

The headphones buzzed and below them a little LED display read, "Vlad". Mom ignored it, breathing hard, fury in her eyes. She started punching buttons on the dashboard, which lit up red and green like a Christmas tree, glowing words like 'Armed' and 'Lethal'. The Zipper made whining sounds as things shifted around inside it. "I'm going to tear him apart molecule by molecule!"

"Mom!" I protested, terrified. "Mom, he's the Ghost King! The Specter Spee-I mean, the Ghost Zone Zipper isn't going to be enough to take him down! We have to get the Reality Gauntlet, remember?" I couldn't even _begin _to explain Phantom's presence to myself, much less to my mom, so I ignored it.

Mom gripped the steering wheel so tight that I thought I heard it crack, but after a moment she began to calm down. "Yes. Yes, of course. We'll just—"

I didn't get to hear what Mom would just do. I was distracted by the sight of Plasmius-Phantom diving at us, laughing all the way. I grabbed the seat under me tightly and willed myself and the entire Zipper to be intangible.

Plasmius flew right through the intangible Zipper and came out the other side. "Go go gogogo_gogo!_" I screeched at Mom; Mom sat frozen, clutching the steering wheel for a moment, before she blinked and punched the gas pedal, and we shot forward at Afterburner Speed again.

I was trembling with anticipation. Mom just kept going in a straight line, her face tight with anxiety. I didn't think the Zipper could outpace the Ghost King, but after ten minutes without an alarm going off or a sighting, Mom slowed down. "The ecto-converter needs time to convert more ectoplasm to energy," she said softly.

I barely dared to breathe. I was totally prepared to tell Mom that I was the one that had turned the Zipper intangible if Mom asked, but we were both pretty shaken up. After another minute or two, I stammered, "Um, in my reality, the Ghost King was defeated by a suit that you and Dad made."

Mom jerked the wheel slightly in surprise before glancing at me. "Danny?" she asked quietly.

"Yeah. You called it the Fenton Suit. And a ghost stole it and piloted it, and he used it to defeat the Ghost King. He needed a lot of help to do it, but he won in the end." I swallowed. "So … if this whole Reality Gauntlet thing doesn't work out, maybe you can try that."

Mom smiled wearily. "Try having a powerful piece of technology stolen by a ghost?"

I squirmed. "I mean, making a Fenton Suit?"

"I don't suppose the ghost that stopped the Ghost King replaced him, did it?"

"No! No, he just … he just wanted to help."

"I find that hard to believe."

Of _course._ "I-I'm just trying to say that you can make something that can defeat the Ghost King! You've done it before, so why couldn't you … uh …" I trailed off as I realized we were flying through murky ectoplasm that was dark blue instead of green, and in the distance I could see the cogs of a familiar tower. _Clockwork?_ "Um … is that where we're going?" I asked, pointing.

Mom glanced down at the radar we were apparently following. "It's the location of the first powerful signature I wanted to examine, yes."

"Oh," I said vaguely. I was now relatively certain that this wasn't where the Reality Gauntlet was; Clockwork, who almost never left his lair, was probably a powerful ectoplasmic signature all by himself. But I have to admit, I had no clue how to explain that to Mom. Mom would still want to go check it out.

The alarm started blaring again, warning us that we were close to the strong ectoplasmic signature. Mom turned it off absently. "Now to find an entrance," she murmured.

"Actually, you can fly right through the walls," I told her. "Humans are like ghosts in the Ghost Zone."

Mom blinked at me. "Really? We haven't had time for extended forays into the Ghost Zone … how did you find that out?"

"It's kind of a long story," I mumbled. "I'll tell you—" I suddenly had to clutch my hands over my mouth as my breath turned to mist again. _I'm not reacting to Clockwork already – he's not close enough. Who's around?_ Could I dare to hope it would be a harmless ghost like Klemper?

No such luck.

The Zipper rocked suddenly as if from a heavy blow. "Ghosts!" Mom exclaimed. I clutched the dashboard, looking for the threat. "Firing off homing ecto-missiles!" Mom pressed a button and the Zipper rocked again as the weapons Mom had armed earlier fired off, leaving plumes of green smoke in their wake; they veered around and out of sight. I heard not-so-distant explosions. "That will keep them busy," Mom promised, gunning the Zipper forward again – or trying to. Nothing happened. "What … we've lost thrust!"

"Boo."

Mom didn't scream; _I _did. Plasmius abruptly appeared in front of the dashboard, but the Danny Phantom I'd seen earlier was absent. "Haha!" Plasmius laughed at my fear. "It seems like we just keep running into each other, doesn't it?" I didn't know if he was talking to me or Mom.

Mom scowled. "You!" She pressed another button on the dashboard, labled 'Specter Deflector'. You can probably guess what happened next.

The whole Ghost Zone Zipper glowed green. Plasmius-Phantom winced – Ghost King or not, a ghost shield was still able to stop him, at least for a while. And me? Well, maybe I couldn't go ghost, but I definitely wasn't just human any more. The Ghost Zone Zipper gave me a good, strong shock – strong enough to shock me into intangibility. I yelped and fell out of the Zipper; the last thing I heard from my Mom was her shouting my name.

As soon as I was clear of the Zipper my instincts kicked back in, though, and my instinct was to float. And to my great surprise, I _did._ I hovered there in the empty space of the Ghost Zone for about four seconds, blinking at the discovery that I had finally regained another power , before it occurred to me to do something with this newfound ability.

"Mom, I'm okay!" I shouted, flying up to where Mom would be able to see me. "Don't turn off the Specter Deflector! Just get away!" I'd go to Clockwork; not even Plasmius could do anything about Clockwork, I was sure of it.

Mom stared at me like she'd seen a ghost (or something really scary that she didn't see every day), though. I had about a split second to realize that it was probably a surprise to her to find out her son could fly, but there wasn't time for that. "Danny?"

"Just go--!" I shot off towards Clockwork's lair, not waiting to see what Mom did or what Plasmius did. Clockwork would make everything safe for me; I was certain of it.

And I couldn't have been more wrong.

_To be continued_

_Author's Notes: Thanks to Cordria, YumeTakato, Nylah, New Ghost Girl, Kiomori, Blue Flyhight, BluFox15, and hawkflyer667 for reviewing chapter 19! I apologize for this chapter being so short, but things are about to intersect heavily between Phantom!Danny and Human!Kinda!Danny so I had to cut things off here. I will likely no longer be able to keep the two halves within their own separate chapters, so please bear with me._

_Next time: what happened to Clockwork, what happened to Phantom, and the Reality Gauntlet, with a guest appearance by somebody dear to our hearts._


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